County ranking
Best places to live in East Sussex
22 towns ranked by overall liveability score, from official UK data.
We score 22 East Sussex towns with a population above 3,000 and data in at least 8 of our 9 categories. Here are the top 22, ranked by overall score. Brighton and Hove leads on 64/100, four points clear of Lower Willingdon on 60. Across all 22 qualifying towns the county median is 49/100, 5 points below the 54/100 median for UK towns of this size.
The top five span £355,000 in Stone Cross to £425,000 in Brighton and Hove on median house price. There is a sharp drop after first, from 64 down to 60, the biggest single step in the table. The listed towns cover 28 points in all, from Brighton and Hove on 64 to Forest Row on 36. Category-by-category detail is on the pages for Brighton and Hove, Lower Willingdon and Stone Cross.
| # | Town | Score | Strongest categories | Population | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brighton and Hove | 64 | Healthcare 86 Lifestyle 89 | 276,758 | £425,000 |
| 2 | Lower Willingdon | 60 | Healthcare 52 Transport 54 | 6,600 | £380,000 |
| 3 | Stone Cross | 58 | Healthcare 48 Schools 50 | 4,103 | £355,000 |
| 4 | Seaford | 56 | Healthcare 55 Lifestyle 49 | 23,520 | £370,000 |
| 5 | Uckfield | 56 | Healthcare 48 Lifestyle 51 | 15,103 | £365,000 |
| 6 | Crowborough | 55 | Healthcare 54 Schools 43 | 21,900 | £415,000 |
| 7 | Eastbourne | 55 | Healthcare 72 Lifestyle 70 | 97,012 | £275,000 |
| 8 | Bexhill-on-Sea | 54 | Lifestyle 71 Transport 63 | 42,834 | £312,500 |
| 9 | Polegate | 54 | Healthcare 56 Transport 46 | 6,602 | £303,750 |
| 10 | Telscombe Cliffs | 52 | Healthcare 42 Transport 45 | 4,413 | £350,000 |
| 11 | Hastings | 51 | Healthcare 62 Lifestyle 63 | 90,260 | £282,000 |
| 12 | Peacehaven | 47 | Healthcare 43 Lifestyle 42 | 15,741 | £331,000 |
| 13 | Heathfield (Wealden) | 46 | Lifestyle 31 Schools 31 | 7,934 | £325,000 |
| 14 | Wadhurst | 46 | Healthcare 30 Environment 76 | 3,342 | £480,000 |
| 15 | Crumbles | 45 | Transport 50 Healthcare 43 | 3,429 | £261,250 |
| 16 | Lewes | 44 | Lifestyle 57 Schools 46 | 16,380 | £455,000 |
| 17 | Hailsham | 43 | Healthcare 48 Lifestyle 31 | 19,437 | £305,000 |
| 18 | Newhaven | 43 | Healthcare 55 Schools 46 | 12,858 | £306,500 |
| 19 | Rye | 41 | Lifestyle 51 Healthcare 36 | 4,977 | £337,000 |
| 20 | Battle | 39 | Lifestyle 40 Healthcare 30 | 4,696 | £350,000 |
| 21 | Pevensey Bay | 37 | Transport 28 Lifestyle 26 | 3,145 | £329,750 |
| 22 | Forest Row | 36 | Environment 75 Healthcare 27 | 3,727 | £525,000 |
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 East Sussex
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 East Sussex 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. East Sussex 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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