Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Some 50,211 people live in this large town, in West Sussex, South East.
Jobs and pay hold up well: mean household income £68,751; 2.1% of 16 to 64s claim unemployment benefits. It also does well on schools — primary results beat 77% of towns in England; secondary results beat 83% of towns in England. Buying the median home, at £400,000, takes 6 years of household income in the Horsham council area. Put together, the subjects come to an A overall, better than 89% of UK towns. In the ranking it comes #8 of 40 in West Sussex. Elsewhere it is close to typical: C+ for safety and B for hazard risk.
Figures: income, ONS · claimants, DWP · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · crime, police.uk, averaged Sep 2023 to Aug 2026 · flood risk, Environment Agency.
The 3 things Horsham 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 Horsham is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic England lists 135 buildings inside Horsham’s built-up area, 1 of them Grade I.
10% 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 1914.
Explore the history →Horsham Township, Pennsylvania, is named after Horsham.
USUS editionHorsham Township, Pennsylvania, settled in 1682, takes its name from this large town.
Named after: each U.S. town’s Wikipedia article. Grades compare each town with towns in its own country, so they aren’t a head-to-head.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Horsham.
The Census was taken on 21 March 2021, in lockdown, so 42% of workers were mainly at home; shares here are of those who travelled.
Working mainly from home: just over two in five workers, higher than both West Sussex’s towns (33%) and England’s towns (31%). About 37% of its commuters stay in Horsham for work. This West Sussex town counts 0.9 jobs per working resident.
ONS Census 2021, method of travel and distance to work · ONS small-area income · DWP claimant count · OGL
At the town’s 12 primary schools, two thirds of pupils reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths (three-year average). Heron Way Primary School’s results beat nearly every one of schools in England like it. Horsham’s 13 primaries and three secondaries have 7,500 pupils between them. Below are three of its 19 schools, each with why it was picked.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kingslea Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 428 | A |
| Tanbridge House SchoolLargest secondary schoolSecondary | Secondary | 1,510 | A− |
| Heron Way Primary SchoolTop results in townPrimary | Primary | 417 | A+ |
Asked at the census, 85% of residents of Horsham said they were in good or very good health. At the census, 16% of people here had a disability, below both West Sussex’s towns (17%) and England’s towns (17%). The nearest A&E to Horsham is Princess Royal Hospital, 11.2 miles away. Life expectancy here is 84.8 for women and 81.5 for men (2019–23).
| Census 2021 | Horsham | West Sussex | England |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 85% | 83% | 82% |
| Bad or very bad health | 3.8% | 4.5% | 5.2% |
| Disabled (Equality Act) | 16% | 17% | 17% |
ONS Census 2021, general health and disability · OHID Fingertips, life expectancy 2019–23 · OGL · A young population flatters these answers, which are not age-adjusted; the Health Grade instead uses measures that allow for age, such as life expectancy and early deaths.
Town centres with shops, stations and nightlife record more crime per resident: police.uk counts crimes where they happen, not where victims live.
Violence and sexual offences were nearly two fifths of the crimes. Violent crime ran at 25.6 per 1,000 residents a year, higher than both West Sussex’s towns (17.3) and England’s towns (22). Horsham logged 2,968 reported offences in a year (to August 2026), plus 1,026 complaints of anti-social conduct.
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.
Owners make up just over two thirds of households, close to West Sussex’s towns (68%) and above England’s towns (61%). Private rents average £1,474 a month across the Horsham council area. 17% of households are private tenants.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Detached | £680,000 | 521 |
| Semi-detached | £450,000 | 605 |
| Terraced | £375,000 | 503 |
| Flat or maisonette | £235,000 | 686 |
HM Land Registry Price Paid · ONS private rents · MHCLG / Welsh Government council tax · ONS Census 2021 tenure · OGL
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
Grade II* covers 6 of them, Grade I 1. Horsham’s listed buildings include the Parish Church of St Mary, Grade I. Before 1919: that is when one in ten homes were built.
Historic England list, October 2026 · Valuation Office Agency, homes by build period · OGL
Nearly a tenth of the population is aged 15 to 24, near West Sussex’s towns (9.8%) and lower than England’s towns (12%). Horsham has a median age of 43.8 years. People 65 and over make up 21% of the town.
51% women, 49% men
About 96 men for every 100 women. Across England, 51% of residents are women.
| Horsham | West Sussex | England | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 17% | 18% |
| 15–24 | 9.5% | 9.8% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 26% | 24% | 27% |
| 45–64 | 28% | 27% | 25% |
| 65+ | 21% | 23% | 18% |
| No qualifications | 12% | 16% | 18% |
| Apprenticeship | 4.7% | 5.5% | 5.3% |
| A levels or similar | 18% | 18% | 17% |
| Degree level | 38% | 32% | 34% |
ONS Census 2021 · West Sussex and England: all residents of their built-up areas · OGL
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Horsham. Best known first.
MuseumHorsham Museumin townMuseumMuseumDoll's House Museum4.8 km outside town, to the southeastZooZooWallaby Enclosure4.9 km outside town, to the southeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
135 listed buildings in Horsham, 1 of them Grade I.
Parish Church of St Mary: Photo: The Voice of Hassocks · CC0 · Horsham Museum: Photo: Whn64 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Horsham Park: Photo: Whn64 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Bandstand: Photo: Richard Nevell · CC BY-SA 4.0
47 notable people were born in Horsham.
Jolyon Palmer: Morio, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Arthur Cockfield, Baron Cockfield: European Communities, CC BY 4.0 · Harry Enfield: Damien Everett, CC BY 2.0 · Cecil Hurst: Meijer, […] / Anefo, CC0 · Robert Shearman: Ausir, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Horsham | 50,211 | — | A | C+ | C+ | A− |
| Broadbridge Heath | 6,357 | 2 | A | C+ | B+ | A− |
| Mannings Heath | 1,137 | 2.2 | — | C− | A | A+ |
| Southwater | 11,204 | 3.1 | A+ | C | A− | A |
| Slinfold | 1,163 | 3.8 | — | C− | A− | A− |
| Barns Green | 1,107 | 4.2 | — | C | A− | A− |
| Pease Pottage | 1,688 | 5 | — | C+ | C− | B |
| Handcross | 1,399 | 5.1 | — | B | C+ | B |
Mannings Heath, Slinfold, Barns Green, Pease Pottage and Handcross 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 far smaller, it grades C+.
GCSE results beat 83% of towns in England, and primary results beat 77% (Department for Education, Attainment 8 and Key Stage 2).
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £400,000, against £277,000 in the typical UK town. By type: flats £235,000, terraced houses £375,000, semi-detached houses £450,000 and detached houses £680,000.
Large town in West Sussex, England
Horsham is a built-up area of 50,211 people, in the Horsham 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.