County ranking
Best places to live in County Durham
30 towns ranked by overall liveability score, from official UK data.
We score 43 County Durham 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. The top two are all but level: Egglescliffe on 63/100, Chester-le-Street on 62. Across all 43 qualifying towns the county median is 47/100, 7 points below the 54/100 median for UK towns of this size.
Darlington is the cheapest way into the top five, with a median house price of £155,000 against £236,000 in Ingleby Barwick. Lifestyle is what puts Egglescliffe first: 75/100 against a 21/100 national town median, well beyond the gap any of its other categories manage. From top to bottom of this table there are 20 points: 63 at the head, 43 at the foot. Full breakdowns for the leaders: Egglescliffe, Chester-le-Street and Great Lumley.
| # | Town | Score | Strongest categories | Population | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Egglescliffe | 63 | Lifestyle 75 Transport 53 | 9,987 | £210,000 |
| 2 | Chester-le-Street | 62 | Healthcare 74 Transport 70 | 23,527 | £169,995 |
| 3 | Great Lumley | 60 | Healthcare 55 Broadband 95 | 3,558 | £220,000 |
| 4 | Ingleby Barwick | 60 | Schools 63 Lifestyle 51 | 19,286 | £236,000 |
| 5 | Darlington | 57 | Healthcare 74 Lifestyle 67 | 86,082 | £155,000 |
| 6 | Stockton-on-Tees | 57 | Healthcare 77 Schools 73 | 75,832 | £165,000 |
| 7 | Pelton and Ouston | 56 | Broadband 99 Transport 55 | 6,763 | £175,000 |
| 8 | Thornaby-on-Tees | 55 | Healthcare 76 Schools 75 | 23,747 | £125,000 |
| 9 | Billingham | 54 | Healthcare 72 Broadband 95 | 33,268 | £148,000 |
| 10 | Consett | 53 | Transport 61 Healthcare 51 | 25,657 | £143,000 |
| 11 | Durham | 52 | Lifestyle 70 Transport 62 | 40,027 | £220,100 |
| 12 | Horden | 52 | Healthcare 66 Transport 67 | 6,833 | £68,555 |
| 13 | Leadgate | 52 | Healthcare 63 Transport 60 | 3,157 | £110,250 |
| 14 | Bishop Auckland | 50 | Transport 68 Schools 62 | 19,575 | £146,000 |
| 15 | Hartlepool | 50 | Healthcare 71 Schools 67 | 87,234 | £145,000 |
| 16 | Wynyard | 50 | Broadband 85 Economic health 87 | 3,827 | £398,952 |
| 17 | Lanchester | 49 | Broadband 89 Schools 35 | 3,368 | £192,500 |
| 18 | Sedgefield | 49 | Healthcare 38 Schools 40 | 4,650 | £188,250 |
| 19 | Stanley (County Durham) | 49 | Transport 65 Schools 63 | 19,168 | £123,000 |
| 20 | Peterlee | 48 | Transport 67 Schools 66 | 21,218 | £103,950 |
| 21 | Annfield Plain | 47 | Healthcare 54 Transport 55 | 7,930 | £103,250 |
| 22 | Yarm | 47 | Lifestyle 64 Schools 50 | 9,572 | £232,000 |
| 23 | Coxhoe | 46 | Broadband 99 Healthcare 37 | 4,433 | £140,000 |
| 24 | Newton Aycliffe | 46 | Transport 61 Healthcare 51 | 25,232 | £148,000 |
| 25 | Seaham | 46 | Transport 59 Healthcare 54 | 19,430 | £137,750 |
| 26 | Spennymoor | 46 | Transport 57 Schools 54 | 13,372 | £140,000 |
| 27 | Barnard Castle | 45 | Lifestyle 53 Schools 50 | 5,895 | £195,000 |
| 28 | Sacriston | 45 | Broadband 98 Transport 47 | 5,309 | £151,500 |
| 29 | Shildon | 45 | Transport 65 Broadband 91 | 9,825 | £78,000 |
| 30 | Brandon (County Durham) | 43 | Transport 54 Broadband 84 | 6,123 | £134,975 |
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 County Durham
The ranking above uses one weighting. Change any control below to re-rank all 43 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 County Durham 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. County Durham has 43 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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