Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A large town in West Midlands, home to 39,052 people.
Several subjects drag its grade down. Health is its weak spot — life expectancy 76.9 for men, 81.1 for women. It also trails on cost of living — homes sell for a median £215,000, about 5 times local household income. Fewer journeys need a car: nearly a fifth of commuters get to work on foot, by bike or by public transport. The overall grade lands at D, #20 of 35 in West Midlands. Nationally, it does better than 10% of UK towns. The rest of its grades are middling: C+ for schools and B for hazard risk.
Figures: commuting, Census 2021 · life expectancy, ONS · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, Environment Agency.
The 3 things Rowley Regis 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 Rowley Regis is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 6 buildings inside Rowley Regis’s built-up area.
2% of its homes were built before 1919, against 15% in the typical UK town.
The archive holds 1 old photo or postcard going back to 1920.
Explore the history →Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Rowley Regis. Best known first.
CastleDudley Castle1.1 km outside town, to the northwest
MuseumBlack Country Living Museum1.1 km outside town, to the northwest
Abbey or priory · English HeritageHalesowen Abbey3.8 km outside town, to the south
MuseumWednesbury Museum & Art Gallery3.5 km outside town, to the north
MuseumThe Oak House Museum1.5 km outside town, to the northeast
Abbey or prioryPriory Ruins1.5 km outside town, to the northwestPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Rowley Regis.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
2% of its homes were built before 1919.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Of its 14 schools, three are shown below, each with the reason. Grace Mary Primary School’s results beat 83% of schools in England like it. Between them, ten primaries and two secondaries teach 6,423 pupils in Rowley Regis.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rowley Hall Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 585 | – |
| St Michael's Church of England High SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,213 | C+ |
| Grace Mary Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 241 | A− |
People aged 15 to 24 make up 12% of the town. Children under 15 make up 21%, near West Midlands’ towns (20%) and higher than England’s towns (18%). Ages in Rowley Regis split evenly at 37.6: half are older, half younger.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Rowley Regis | West Midlands | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 21% | 20% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 12% | 14% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 27% | 27% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 16% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 27% | 24% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 5.5% | 4.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 16% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 22% | 28% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · West Midlands and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
One GP practice serves the town; 80% of patients rate theirs good in the GP Patient Survey. At the census, 6.1% of residents said their health was bad or very bad, close to West Midlands’ towns (6%) and above England’s towns (5.2%). The nearest A&E to Rowley Regis is Russells Hall Hospital, 3.1 miles away.
| Census 2021 | Rowley Regis | West Midlands | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 80% | 80% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 6.1% | 6% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 18% | 18% | 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.
Social housing holds nearly a quarter of households. Private rents average £951 a month across the Sandwell council area. Also worth knowing: the £215,000 median rests on 873 standard sales inside the built-up area (September 2023 to August 2026).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £312,500 | 164 |
| Semi-detached | £215,000 | 424 |
| Terraced | £200,000 | 219 |
| Flat or maisonette | £105,000 | 66 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Violence came to 36.6 per 1,000 residents a year, above West Midlands’ towns (33) and England’s towns (22) alike. Rowley Regis logged 2,554 reported offences in a year (to August 2026), plus 99 complaints of anti-social conduct. Among the 645 UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, Rowley Regis has more crime per resident than 62% 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
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 20% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
By car: that was how 78% of commuters travelled at the census. Of the commuters living in Rowley Regis, 8% work in the town itself. For every resident in work, Rowley Regis has 0.6 jobs. Household income came to £44K a year before tax, lower than both West Midlands’ towns (£48K) and England’s towns (£55K).
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
6 listed buildings in Rowley Regis.
North Portal, Netherton Tunnel (Approximately 130 Metres North East of Dudley Road West) Birmingham Canal Netherton Tunnel Branch, Tividale: Photo: Tina Cordon · CC BY-SA 3.0 · War memorial outside St Giles' Church, Rowley Regis: Photo: AtticTapestry · CC BY-SA 4.0
The nearest built-up areas, from ONS’s 2022 boundaries. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rowley Regis | 39,052 | — | D | C− | C− | D |
| Blackheath | 6,950 | 1.5 | D− | C− | D− | D |
| Oldbury | 45,188 | 2 | D− | D | D | D |
| Dudley | 64,277 | 2 | C− | A | D− | D |
| Cradley Heath | 18,819 | 2.1 | D− | C− | D | D |
| Tipton | 47,202 | 2.3 | D− | C− | D | D− |
| Halesowen | 60,103 | 3.1 | B− | B+ | C | C |
| Smethwick | 56,343 | 3.2 | D | C− | D | D |
People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades C−. Police recorded 2,554 crimes inside Rowley Regis’ 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.
Homes cost less than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £215,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £105,000, terraced houses £200,000, semi-detached houses £215,000 and detached houses £312,500. Household incomes are lower than in 82% of UK towns, so cost of living grades C−.
Large town in West Midlands, England
Rowley Regis is a built-up area of 39,052 people, in the Sandwell 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.