Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 6,425 in Warwickshire, West Midlands.
Alcester grades B− overall against UK towns: better than 53% of UK towns, and #20 of 34 in Warwickshire. Its strongest subject is cost of living (B+): median sale £285,000, 4.7 years of area income; rent £1,149 a month. Its weakest is hazard risk (D): 7% of homes at high or medium risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.
The 3 things Alcester does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within England), ordered by how far Alcester is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 121 buildings inside Alcester’s built-up area, 2 of them Grade I, and 2 scheduled monuments.
15% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Alcester.
Nearly one in ten residents are 15 to 24, below Warwickshire’s towns (11%) and England’s towns (12%) alike. Half of Alcester is older than 50.5, half younger. Degrees are held by 32% of adults.
52% women, 48% men
About 91 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Alcester | Warwickshire | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 8.4% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 21% | 26% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 26% | 25% |
| 65+ | 29% | 20% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 19% | 17% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 5.5% | 5.5% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 32% | 35% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · Warwickshire and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Two of its 5 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. 53% of pupils at the town’s 2 primary schools met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). Attainment 8 at the town’s 3 secondary schools averages 60.4, and 71% of pupils get grade 5 or above in English and maths.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| St Nicholas CofE PrimaryLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 413 | C− |
| Alcester Grammar SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,299 | A+ |
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Alcester’s listed buildings include Malt House, Grade I. Scaled to its population, that is 188 listed buildings for every 10,000 people in the town. At the top of the list, 2 are Grade I and 5 Grade II*.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
There were 14.3 anti-social behaviour reports per 1,000 residents (not graded), above both Warwickshire’s towns (10.3) and England’s towns (7.8). Over the year to August 2026, 477 offences were reported in Alcester, along with 115 incidents of anti-social behaviour. Each year, 12.8 burglaries and acts of damage are recorded per 1,000 residents. Among the 1,308 UK towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, Alcester has more crime per resident than 78% of them.
Not gradedAnti-social behaviour, shoplifting and other theft are shown but left out of the Safety Grade, which counts violence and crimes against homes and vehicles per resident.
data.police.uk street-level crime · points inside the ONS built-up-area boundary · OGL
15% rent privately, near Warwickshire’s towns (17%) and lower than England’s towns (21%). Social renters account for nearly a fifth of households. Half of the 261 standard sales inside Alcester’s built-up area from September 2023 to August 2026 went for more than £285,000.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £421,000 | 47 |
| Semi-detached | £316,250 | 86 |
| Terraced | £250,000 | 89 |
| Flat or maisonette | £140,000 | 39 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 29% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Household income came to £52K a year before tax, about level with England’s towns (£55K) and below Warwickshire’s towns (£59K). By car: that was how just over four in five commuters travelled at the census. Work in town: 22% of resident commuters. For every resident in work, Alcester has 1.4 jobs.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Asked at the census, four in five residents of Alcester said they were in good or very good health. 2 GP practices serve the town; 92% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. The nearest A&E to Alcester is Alexandra Hospital, 4.5 miles away.
| Census 2021 | Alcester | Warwickshire | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 83% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 4.8% | 4.7% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 19% | 17% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Because the census answers ignore age, a younger population lifts them; that is why the Health Grade is built on age-adjusted measures like life expectancy and early deaths.
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Alcester. Best known first.
121 listed buildings in Alcester, 2 of them Grade I.
Malt House: Photo: Jo Turner · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Church of St Nicholas: Photo: Keith D · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Lord Nelson Inn: Photo: Alan Hughes · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Gunnings Bridge: Photo: Derek Harper · CC BY-SA 2.0
8 notable people were born in Alcester.
Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke: Edmund Lodge, Public domain · Frederick George Jackson: Lambert Weston (1806—1895), Public domain · Edward Scriven: Benjamin Phelps Gibbon, engraver; after original by Andrew Morton (Life time: Gibbon died Regent's Park, London, on 28 July 1851), Public domain · Richard Waldron: Artist unknown, Public domain
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alcester | 6,425 | — | B− | B+ | C | B− |
| Studley | 6,039 | 3.6 | C+ | B+ | C+ | C+ |
| Bidford-on-Avon | 5,825 | 3.7 | B | B | B− | B |
| Astwood Bank | 3,248 | 3.9 | B+ | C− | A | A |
| Inkberrow | 1,817 | 4.7 | — | C+ | A | A+ |
| Welford-on-Avon | 1,692 | 5.3 | — | C− | A− | B+ |
| Redditch | 81,634 | 6 | D | B− | C− | C− |
| Harvington | 1,717 | 6 | — | B− | B | C+ |
Inkberrow, Welford-on-Avon and Harvington have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
That is 7.7 times the typical UK town for its size. Its Grade I buildings include Malt House. It also has 2 scheduled monuments.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Police recorded 477 crimes inside Alcester’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026, 51% of them violence and sexual offences, a police category that includes harassment and stalking.
Town in Warwickshire, England
Alcester is a built-up area of 6,425 people, in the Stratford-on-Avon council area. TownRatings uses ONS’s 2022 built-up areas as towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council district, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from ONS geography and Census 2021
Sources: ONS Census 2021, output areas summed to the ONS 2022 built-up area · HM Land Registry Price Paid (standard sales, September 2023 to August 2026) · ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026, by council) · MHCLG and Welsh Government council tax, Band D 2026–27 (with parish precepts in England) · data.police.uk street-level crime, 36 months to August 2026, points inside the built-up-area boundary · ONS small-area life expectancy and healthy life expectancy, 2019 to 2023 (England and Wales), OHID Fingertips small-area indicators (England) and Census 2021 health, adjusted for age · ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023) · DWP claimant count via Nomis (January to August 2026) · Historic England, National Heritage List for England (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary · Valuation Office Agency, Council Tax: stock of properties by build period (31 March 2025) · 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.