Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
In West Midlands, this town has 12,844 residents.
Rushall and Shelfield grades low on several counts. Health is its weak spot: life expectancy 78.3 for men, 81.1 for women. A median £220,000 buys a home here, 4.8 times what households in the Walsall council area earn in a year. Safety is weaker too: 32.5 violent and sexual offences and 19.4 home and vehicle crimes per 1,000 residents a year. Set beside UK towns of 10,000 to 50,000 people, its crime per resident is higher than in 65%. The overall grade lands at D−, better than 5% of UK towns. In the ranking it comes #24 of 35 in West Midlands.
Figures: life expectancy and incomes, ONS · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years.
The 3 things Rushall and Shelfield 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 Rushall and Shelfield is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 3 buildings inside Rushall and Shelfield’s built-up area.
6% 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 Rushall and Shelfield.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
6% of its homes were built before 1919, lower than both West Midlands’ towns (7%) and England’s towns (16%). For its size, Rushall and Shelfield has 2 listed buildings per 10,000 residents.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Just over half of pupils at the town’s 4 primary schools met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). St Francis Catholic Primary School’s results beat nearly four in five schools in England like it. Three of its 6 schools are below, each with the reason it’s listed. Rushall and Shelfield’s four primaries and one secondary have 2,353 pupils between them.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rushall Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 260 | C− |
| Ormiston Shelfield Community AcademyLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,419 | D |
| St Francis Catholic Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 207 | A− |
The under-15s are 17% of the population here. 21% of residents are 65 or over, above West Midlands’ towns (16%) and England’s towns (18%) alike. Aged 15 to 24: one in ten residents. Line up the people of Rushall and Shelfield by age and the one in the middle is 42.7.
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Rushall and Shelfield | West Midlands | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 17% | 20% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 14% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 25% | 27% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 27% | 24% | 25% |
| 65+ | 21% | 16% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 25% | 24% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 6% | 4.6% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 17% | 17% | 17% |
| Degree level | 23% | 28% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · West Midlands and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Men in Rushall and Shelfield can expect to live to 78.3, women to 81.1 (2019–23). Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 7% of the town. In addition, a disability affects 21% of people locally.
| Census 2021 | Rushall and Shelfield | West Midlands | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 77% | 80% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 7% | 6% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 21% | 18% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · Read these answers with age in mind: they aren’t adjusted, so younger places do better. The Health Grade uses age-adjusted measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them.
882 crimes and 57 reports of anti-social behaviour: that is what police recorded inside Rushall and Shelfield’s built-up area in the 12 months to August 2026. Of all the crimes, 45% were violence and sexual offences.
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 police category of violence and sexual offences includes harassment and stalking.
Home ownership stands at two thirds of households. Private rents average £924 a month across the Walsall council area. The £220,000 median rests on 422 standard sales inside the built-up area (September 2023 to August 2026).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £305,000 | 80 |
| Semi-detached | £220,000 | 207 |
| Terraced | £208,500 | 100 |
| Flat or maisonette | £92,500 | 35 |
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 20% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
The average household earns £46K a year before tax. 85% of commuters drove, above both West Midlands’ towns (73%) and England’s towns (70%). The 2026 claimant rate among 16 to 64s was 3.7%. Of the commuters living in Rushall and Shelfield, 6% work in the town itself.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Rushall and Shelfield. Best known first.
Art galleryThe New Art Gallery1.9 km outside town, to the southwest
MuseumAston Manor Transport Museum1.3 km outside town, to the east
MuseumThe Leather Museum1.5 km outside town, to the southwestGardenGardenWalsall Arboretum1.2 km outside town, to the southZooZooOak Tree Children's Farm3.8 km outside town, to the eastMuseumMuseumChasewater Railway Museum4.2 km outside town, to the northPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
11 notable people were born in Rushall and Shelfield.
Nick Redfern: SMG2019, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rushall and Shelfield | 12,844 | — | D− | C− | C− | D |
| Pelsall | 10,455 | 1.2 | D | D | C | C |
| Aldridge | 15,827 | 1.5 | C | D | C | C+ |
| Bloxwich | 51,891 | 1.7 | D− | C | D− | D− |
| Clayhanger | 1,698 | 2 | — | D | B− | C |
| Brownhills | 21,238 | 2.3 | D− | C− | D | D |
| Walsall | 70,777 | 2.6 | D | C− | D− | D |
| Stonnall | 1,340 | 2.8 | — | C+ | B+ | B+ |
Clayhanger and Stonnall have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. People: Census 2021. Miles: centre to centre.
Against all UK towns, most of them smaller, it grades C−.
Surface water isn’t included. Check a specific address on GOV.UK’s flood risk service.
Town in West Midlands, England
Rushall and Shelfield is a built-up area of 12,844 people, in the Walsall 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.