County ranking
Best places to live in Isle of Wight
10 towns ranked by overall liveability score, from official UK data.
This ranking covers the ten Isle of Wight towns above 3,000 people that we can score in at least 8 of 9 categories, with the best 10 listed. Top of the list is Cowes at 58/100, six points ahead of second-placed Ryde (52). Median score across the ten towns we rank here is 48/100, 6 points below the 54/100 that UK towns this size typically manage.
The top five span £215,000 in Newport (Isle of Wight) to £297,500 in Freshwater and Totland on median house price. Lifestyle is what puts Newport (Isle of Wight) fourth: 73/100 against a 21/100 national town median, well beyond the gap any of its other categories manage. The steepest fall in the ranking comes after ninth place, where Ventnor on 43 gives way to Wootton (Isle of Wight) on 36. See the detailed scores for Cowes, Ryde and East Cowes.
| # | Town | Score | Strongest categories | Population | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cowes | 58 | Broadband 96 Lifestyle 56 | 14,043 | £290,000 |
| 2 | Ryde | 52 | Lifestyle 61 Transport 57 | 23,725 | £240,000 |
| 3 | East Cowes | 49 | Lifestyle 53 Broadband 89 | 7,824 | £225,250 |
| 4 | Newport (Isle of Wight) | 49 | Lifestyle 73 Transport 57 | 24,051 | £215,000 |
| 5 | Freshwater and Totland | 48 | Lifestyle 43 Transport 42 | 7,949 | £297,500 |
| 6 | Shanklin | 48 | Lifestyle 64 Transport 60 | 8,739 | £280,000 |
| 7 | Bembridge | 47 | Lifestyle 40 Transport 30 | 3,143 | £350,000 |
| 8 | Sandown | 46 | Transport 59 Lifestyle 58 | 11,749 | £230,000 |
| 9 | Ventnor | 43 | Lifestyle 51 Transport 45 | 5,424 | £220,000 |
| 10 | Wootton (Isle of Wight) | 36 | Lifestyle 37 Transport 31 | 3,337 | £310,000 |
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 Isle of Wight
The ranking above uses one weighting. Change any control below to re-rank all 10 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 Isle of Wight 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. Isle of Wight has 10 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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