County ranking
Best places to live in Berkshire
22 towns ranked by overall liveability score, from official UK data.
This ranking covers the 22 Berkshire towns above 3,000 people that we can score in at least 8 of 9 categories, with the best 22 listed. Caversham edges it on 69/100, a single point ahead of Woodley on 68. Four of them score 65 or better, something about one in eight comparable UK towns manages: Caversham (69), Woodley (68), Maidenhead (66) and Reading (66).
Median score across the 22 towns we rank here is 59/100, 5 points above the 54/100 that UK towns this size typically manage. Reading is the cheapest way into the top five, with a median house price of £353,250 against £518,250 in Windsor. 21st to 22nd is the table's widest single gap: 49 to 43. Full breakdowns for the leaders: Caversham, Woodley and Maidenhead.
| # | Town | Score | Strongest categories | Population | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Caversham | 69 | Healthcare 65 Lifestyle 68 | 32,531 | £450,000 |
| 2 | Woodley | 68 | Transport 68 Schools 62 | 28,577 | £466,000 |
| 3 | Maidenhead | 66 | Healthcare 70 Transport 62 | 67,170 | £490,000 |
| 4 | Reading | 66 | Healthcare 80 Transport 77 | 193,208 | £353,250 |
| 5 | Windsor | 63 | Healthcare 73 Lifestyle 72 | 32,163 | £518,250 |
| 6 | Slough | 62 | Healthcare 73 Schools 71 | 154,659 | £408,750 |
| 7 | Bracknell | 61 | Healthcare 60 Schools 61 | 65,023 | £380,000 |
| 8 | Datchet | 60 | Healthcare 61 Lifestyle 59 | 4,941 | £519,000 |
| 9 | Old Windsor and Wraysbury | 60 | Lifestyle 58 Healthcare 53 | 7,553 | £592,500 |
| 10 | Wokingham | 60 | Schools 65 Healthcare 47 | 45,032 | £492,500 |
| 11 | Cookham | 59 | Lifestyle 50 Healthcare 43 | 5,430 | £650,000 |
| 12 | Sandhurst (Bracknell Forest) | 59 | Schools 56 Lifestyle 53 | 20,285 | £445,000 |
| 13 | Winnersh | 59 | Schools 56 Transport 48 | 8,895 | £510,000 |
| 14 | Ascot | 58 | Healthcare 55 Economic health 91 | 23,933 | £600,000 |
| 15 | Crowthorne | 58 | Schools 52 Lifestyle 50 | 14,602 | £495,000 |
| 16 | Binfield | 56 | Broadband 93 Schools 49 | 3,500 | £532,500 |
| 17 | Thatcham | 56 | Transport 51 Schools 52 | 24,318 | £350,000 |
| 18 | Newbury | 55 | Transport 59 Lifestyle 56 | 36,358 | £360,000 |
| 19 | Twyford (Wokingham) | 53 | Economic health 89 Healthcare 38 | 7,052 | £523,000 |
| 20 | Hungerford | 52 | Lifestyle 49 Healthcare 38 | 5,062 | £355,000 |
| 21 | Pangbourne | 49 | Economic health 85 Healthcare 32 | 3,324 | £460,000 |
| 22 | Burghfield Common | 43 | Broadband 90 Economic health 76 | 4,791 | £448,750 |
Ranked on the default weighting, out of 100. Strongest categories are the two furthest above the national median for that category, not simply the two highest numbers. Almost every town scores well on safety, so raw highs would say little.
Find your own best place in Berkshire
The ranking above uses one weighting. Change any control below to re-rank all 22 qualifying towns around what you actually care about — who's moving, a minimum on one category, a price ceiling for the type of home you'd buy.
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How this ranking was built
Every settlement in Berkshire was scored across 9 categories (safety, schools, healthcare, transport, environment, broadband, lifestyle, economic health and bills) from official sources including Police UK, Ofsted, the CQC, Ofcom, the Environment Agency and MHCLG. Two filters then decide who appears here:
- Population above 3,000. Without a floor the list fills with hamlets of a few dozen people. Berkshire has 22 towns above it.
- Real data in at least 8 of 9 categories. Places we can only partly measure are excluded rather than ranked on guesswork.
Counties are ceremonial, and a town belongs to the county its postcodes physically sit in, so border towns land where residents would expect them to.
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