County ranking
Best places to live in Buckinghamshire
30 towns ranked by overall liveability score, from official UK data.
We score 31 Buckinghamshire towns with a population above 3,000 and data in at least 8 of our 9 categories. Here are the top 30, ranked by overall score. Top of the list is Haddenham (Buckinghamshire) at 62/100, two points ahead of second-placed Chalfont St Peter (60). The top five span £325,000 in Milton Keynes to £815,000 in Chalfont St Peter on median house price.
Healthcare is what puts Chalfont St Peter second: 64/100 against a 18/100 national town median, well beyond the gap any of its other categories manage. 27th to 28th is the table's widest single gap: 49 to 45. Across the 30 towns listed, scores run from 62 down to 42, a 20-point spread. See the detailed scores for Haddenham (Buckinghamshire), Chalfont St Peter and Milton Keynes.
| # | Town | Score | Strongest categories | Population | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Haddenham (Buckinghamshire) | 62 | Lifestyle 61 Healthcare 51 | 5,618 | £485,000 |
| 2 | Chalfont St Peter | 60 | Healthcare 64 Lifestyle 50 | 13,452 | £815,000 |
| 3 | Milton Keynes | 60 | Schools 70 Lifestyle 67 | 168,655 | £325,000 |
| 4 | Newport Pagnell | 60 | Healthcare 49 Lifestyle 52 | 15,715 | £337,500 |
| 5 | Amersham | 59 | Lifestyle 56 Schools 57 | 17,868 | £775,000 |
| 6 | High Wycombe | 59 | Healthcare 77 Lifestyle 66 | 79,153 | £375,000 |
| 7 | Bletchley | 58 | Schools 66 Healthcare 59 | 40,774 | £323,750 |
| 8 | Aylesbury | 57 | Schools 70 Lifestyle 65 | 74,069 | £323,000 |
| 9 | Hazlemere | 57 | Schools 55 Healthcare 41 | 19,739 | £545,000 |
| 10 | Marlow | 56 | Lifestyle 55 Schools 55 | 15,176 | £591,500 |
| 11 | Olney | 54 | Lifestyle 50 Healthcare 38 | 6,221 | £371,250 |
| 12 | Stoke Poges | 54 | Healthcare 57 Schools 40 | 3,863 | £678,750 |
| 13 | Beaconsfield | 53 | Healthcare 59 Lifestyle 54 | 14,138 | £950,000 |
| 14 | Little Chalfont | 53 | Schools 52 Lifestyle 50 | 6,734 | £800,000 |
| 15 | Prestwood and Great Missenden | 53 | Healthcare 51 Lifestyle 48 | 7,712 | £530,800 |
| 16 | Princes Risborough | 53 | Healthcare 48 Lifestyle 41 | 8,043 | £467,500 |
| 17 | Bourne End | 52 | Lifestyle 47 Schools 47 | 7,375 | £586,250 |
| 18 | Farnham Common and Farnham Royal | 52 | Healthcare 53 Lifestyle 41 | 6,952 | £685,000 |
| 19 | Stoke Mandeville | 52 | Schools 40 Lifestyle 37 | 4,222 | £575,000 |
| 20 | Buckingham | 51 | Lifestyle 52 Schools 46 | 10,990 | £375,000 |
| 21 | Chalfont St Giles | 51 | Economic health 88 Schools 40 | 4,900 | £724,250 |
| 22 | Flackwell Heath and Wooburn Green | 51 | Lifestyle 46 Schools 41 | 12,278 | £490,000 |
| 23 | Chesham | 50 | Healthcare 54 Schools 44 | 22,598 | £435,000 |
| 24 | Gerrards Cross | 50 | Broadband 91 Lifestyle 41 | 7,553 | £1,260,000 |
| 25 | Wendover | 50 | Schools 48 Lifestyle 39 | 5,537 | £560,000 |
| 26 | Iver | 49 | Healthcare 52 Lifestyle 51 | 3,308 | £450,000 |
| 27 | Marlow Bottom | 49 | Economic health 92 Schools 35 | 3,040 | £766,750 |
| 28 | Iver Heath | 45 | Healthcare 44 Lifestyle 45 | 5,199 | £620,000 |
| 29 | Stokenchurch | 43 | Healthcare 37 Environment 73 | 3,905 | £395,000 |
| 30 | Winslow | 42 | Broadband 88 Lifestyle 33 | 4,886 | £375,000 |
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 Buckinghamshire
The ranking above uses one weighting. Change any control below to re-rank all 31 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 Buckinghamshire 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. Buckinghamshire has 31 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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