Photo: Tagishsimon · CC BY-SA 3.0How Tyne and Wear stacks up
No area has fewer homes at risk of flooding: in Tyne and Wear, 0.2% of homes in its towns are at high or medium risk of flooding. The overall grade: C+, a score of 41 that ranks 39th. Its weak spots are health that trails most areas and above-average crime.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
49th of 65C25/100 Higher crime than most areas. At 36.3 violent offences per 1,000 residents, Tyne and Wear sits 27th highest among the areas. 52% of town residents live in bottom-quarter towns, among them Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland.
With theft, burglary and the rest counted too, 95 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 9th highest.
Source: police.uk street-level crime, September 2025 to August 2026 (each crime placed by its LSOA); Census 2021 residents. Greater Manchester Police publishes none.
Measure: recorded crime against residents (violence, burglary, vehicle crime, criminal damage), as in our Safety grades. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,138 graded towns. 34 Tyne and Wear towns.
The big places weigh on the total
At the quiet end sit Cleadon (#87), Crawcrook and Greenside (#424) and Wideopen (#440) of 2,138 towns. The busiest quarter for recorded crime takes in South Shields, Wallsend and Chopwell. Its towns tell a different story from the county total: 52nd of 61 town by town, 27th highest county-wide.
| County | Safest quarter | Most-crime quarter | Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ards and North Down | 100% | 0% | |
| Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon | 100% | 0% | |
| Lisburn and Castlereagh | 100% | 0% | |
| Mid Ulster | 100% | 0% | |
| Antrim and Newtownabbey | 78% | 0% | |
| Tyne and Wear | 14% | 52% |
Town centres and the people who live there
Each crime on police.uk is pinned to a nearby street or public place, not an address; both figures count crimes where those points fall. The county-wide rate takes in town centres, stations and shopping streets, where many offences are recorded but few people live. Our town grades leave shop theft and other town-centre crime out and count violence, burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage, the crimes that reach people at home.
Schools
38th of 90B58/100 Somewhat above-average schools. Primary schools do better than secondaries here: 4th highest at eleven, 12th lowest at GCSE. Tyne and Wear’s eleven-year-olds rank 4th highest in the national tests: 66% reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths. Its towns mostly sit mid-table; Crawcrook and Greenside ranks highest, at #150.
Attainment 8 at GCSE: 44.8 (12th lowest), weighed equally with the primary results.
Source: DfE key stage 2 results 2024/25 and key stage 4 (Attainment 8), every state school in the county, pupil-weighted. England only.
Measure: our Schools grade: primary and secondary results of the schools in and around each town. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,331 graded towns. 34 Tyne and Wear towns.
Cost of living
36th of 98B64/100 Somewhat affordable. Homes cost 4.0 times what the average household takes in a year, 24% below the England and Wales figure: a typical sale of £178,000 against income of £45,100. The county total looks better than its towns do. Easington Lane leads its towns at #455 of 2,515; 39% of town residents live in top-quarter towns.
Typical sale price: £178,000 (10,746 sales, 14th lowest).
Private rent £892 a month (41st lowest); Band D council tax £2,459 (26th highest). Shown for context.
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales September 2025 to August 2026; ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023); ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026); council Band D 2026/27.
Measure: our Cost of living grade: prices and rents against local income, plus council tax. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 34 Tyne and Wear towns.
Health
88th of 98D10/100 Health trails most areas. Its biggest places pull the town measure down: Newcastle upon Tyne and Sunderland sit in the bottom quarter for the UK. Of a life expectancy of 79.2 years, 61.7 are expected in good health (4th shortest among the areas).
Total life expectancy is 79.2 years (6th shortest).
Source: ONS life expectancy and healthy life expectancy by small area (MSOA), 2019 to 2023, men and women averaged.
Measure: our Health grade: ONS life and healthy life expectancy, Census health, and OHID indicators in England. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 34 Tyne and Wear towns.
Jobs & income
82nd of 98C−16/100 Money is tighter here. The average household income is £45,100 a year, 19% below the England and Wales figure. Northumberland and County Durham both do better on incomes. Cleadon leads its towns at #58 of 2,156; 6% of town residents live in top-quarter towns.
Out-of-work claimants in August 2026: 3.9% of working-age adults (17th highest), weighed with income in the grade.
Source: ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023), household-weighted; DWP claimant count (August 2026) by council.
Measure: our Jobs & income grade: household income. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,156 graded towns. 34 Tyne and Wear towns.
Getting about
13th of 98A88/100 Easier to get about than most. No neighbour beats it on walkability; Northumberland comes closest. Tyne and Wear ranks 10th highest for getting to work without a car: 27% of commuters walk, cycle or ride. 26% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, 9% in a bottom-quarter one; Newcastle upon Tyne ranks highest.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 27% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: ONS Census 2021, method of travel to work (TS061) by council; people working mainly from home left out.
Measure: our Walkability grade: how many everyday places are within reach on foot. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 34 Tyne and Wear towns.
Flood risk
3rd of 87A+98/100 Low flood risk, town after town. 58% of town residents live in top-quarter towns such as Wideopen and Killingworth, and almost none at the bottom. Tyne and Wear leads every area on this measure: 0.2% of homes in its towns are at high or medium risk of flooding. It leads its neighbours on flood risk, ahead of Northumberland.
Source: Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales flood-risk maps (rivers and the sea), homes in every town of the county.
Measure: our Hazard risk grade: the share of homes at high or medium flood risk. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,452 graded towns. 34 Tyne and Wear towns.
Growth
58th of 98C+41/100 Slower than most. Its biggest places pull the town measure down: Sunderland and Gateshead sit in the bottom quarter for the UK. The population grew 6.7% between 2011 and 2024, to 1.18 million, against 10.0% across England and Wales (49th slowest). It leads its neighbours on growth, ahead of County Durham.
From 2021 to 2024 alone, +4.6% (12th fastest).
Source: ONS mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Measure: population change from 2011 to 2024 (ONS estimates for built-up areas). The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 1,579 graded towns. 26 Tyne and Wear towns.
How Tyne and Wear compares to its neighbours
Tyne and Wear beats every neighbour on getting about, flood risk and growth; on jobs and income, every neighbour beats it.
| Tyne and Wear | Northumberland | County Durham | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | C+ 4139th of 65 | B− 5232nd of 65 | C 3443rd of 65 |
| Safety | C 2539th official · 14% in top towns | B 5516th official · 18% in top towns | D− 362nd official · 6% in top towns |
| Schools | B 584th official · 10% in top towns | C 3338th official · 12% in top towns | B 6211th official · 16% in top towns |
| Cost of living | B 6416th official · 39% in top towns | B 6240th official · 78% in top towns | A− 805th official · 87% in top towns |
| Health | D 1052nd official · 6% in top towns | B− 4934th official · 19% in top towns | D 950th official · 5% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | C− 1665th official · 6% in top towns | C+ 3757th official · 4% in top towns | C+ 3580th official · 10% in top towns |
| Getting about | A 8810th official · 26% in top towns | B 5966th official · 5% in top towns | B− 4971st official · 1% in top towns |
| Flood risk | A+ 981st official · 58% in top towns | A 916th official · 58% in top towns | A 876th official · 50% in top towns |
| Growth | C+ 4150th official · 4% in top towns | C− 2461st official · 0% in top towns | C+ 3656th official · 5% in top towns |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the county’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of its town residents living in a top-quarter town for the UK. Neighbour names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is an official figure for the whole county, its towns, villages and countryside together, built from the small areas and councils that make it up and ranked against the other counties. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the county’s graded towns of 2,500 or more, the share whose town is in the top quarter for the UK. Quarters are of people, not towns: the top quarter is the best-placed towns that together hold a quarter of everyone living in graded towns, so a county of big cities is not marked down just for being urban. A county can do well on one measure and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the area’s standing in one UK league of 98: the ceremonial counties of England (London counts as one), Wales’s eight preserved counties, and Scotland’s 32 and Northern Ireland’s 11 council areas, each called by its own name. The two measures’ percentiles are averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. Where a nation publishes its own kind of figure, the official figure is ranked within that nation: school results everywhere, health in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and flood risk in Scotland. Each area’s figures are set beside its own nation’s. 100 is the best county, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, jobs & income 12, getting about 8, growth 8, flood risk 6 (out of 100), over the subjects a county has. Counties with fewer than 5 graded towns (Rutland, Bristol) are graded on the official figures alone.
What it is not. A county figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a county is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out villages and towns under 2,500. Neither says anything about any one street.
Gaps. Wales publishes no school results that compare with England’s, so Welsh counties have no Schools grade. Greater Manchester Police publishes no street-level crime, so Greater Manchester has no Safety grade and, as for its towns, no overall grade. Nor does Police Scotland, so Scotland’s council areas have no Safety grade or overall grade yet. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no small-area income figures, so their household income is estimated from ONS household income per head. Flood risk has no county-wide official figure; it is the share of homes in the county’s towns at high or medium risk. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work
Sources: TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.