County ranking
Best places to live in North Yorkshire
30 towns ranked by overall liveability score, from official UK data.
We score 44 North Yorkshire 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. Two towns tie at the top on 64/100: Harrogate and York. Median score across the 44 towns we rank here is 50/100, 4 points below the 54/100 that UK towns this size typically manage.
On price, Romanby is the top five's cheapest at a median of £235,000. Copmanthorpe, also in the top five, runs to £390,000. Lifestyle is what puts Copmanthorpe third: 86/100 against a 21/100 national town median, well beyond the gap any of its other categories manage. Across the 30 towns listed, scores run from 64 down to 48, a 16-point spread. Full breakdowns for the leaders: Harrogate, York and Copmanthorpe.
| # | Town | Score | Strongest categories | Population | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harrogate | 64 | Healthcare 70 Lifestyle 64 | 73,902 | £290,000 |
| 2 | York | 64 | Lifestyle 91 Transport 79 | 137,782 | £290,000 |
| 3 | Copmanthorpe | 63 | Lifestyle 86 Broadband 91 | 3,576 | £390,000 |
| 4 | Romanby | 63 | Healthcare 60 Lifestyle 57 | 3,531 | £235,000 |
| 5 | Haxby | 62 | Lifestyle 70 Transport 51 | 10,079 | £302,500 |
| 6 | Huntington (York) | 62 | Lifestyle 76 Transport 67 | 11,819 | £306,250 |
| 7 | Skipton | 60 | Lifestyle 64 Schools 60 | 12,821 | £231,000 |
| 8 | Knaresborough | 59 | Healthcare 61 Broadband 94 | 15,840 | £347,498 |
| 9 | Upper Poppleton | 58 | Transport 52 Broadband 89 | 3,248 | £500,000 |
| 10 | Middlesbrough | 56 | Healthcare 83 Schools 76 | 144,119 | £155,000 |
| 11 | Ripon | 56 | Healthcare 61 Lifestyle 59 | 16,734 | £271,250 |
| 12 | Sherburn in Elmet | 56 | Broadband 99 Healthcare 43 | 4,758 | £252,500 |
| 13 | Brayton | 54 | Broadband 99 Schools 46 | 3,705 | £290,000 |
| 14 | Strensall | 54 | Economic health 87 Healthcare 35 | 5,621 | £330,000 |
| 15 | Filey | 52 | Lifestyle 57 Broadband 96 | 6,605 | £195,000 |
| 16 | Marske-by-the-Sea | 52 | Healthcare 46 Schools 50 | 8,021 | £180,000 |
| 17 | Northallerton | 52 | Lifestyle 64 Healthcare 54 | 10,696 | £225,000 |
| 18 | Redcar | 52 | Schools 68 Healthcare 62 | 36,371 | £160,000 |
| 19 | Norton-on-Derwent | 51 | Broadband 91 Lifestyle 49 | 4,676 | £218,000 |
| 20 | Thirsk | 51 | Healthcare 48 Lifestyle 45 | 5,841 | £240,000 |
| 21 | Bedale | 50 | Broadband 97 Healthcare 42 | 3,207 | £239,000 |
| 22 | Cross Hills | 50 | Schools 48 Broadband 84 | 4,545 | £243,115 |
| 23 | Sutton-in-Craven | 50 | Schools 54 Broadband 77 | 3,143 | £215,000 |
| 24 | Selby | 49 | Broadband 95 Schools 55 | 10,544 | £180,000 |
| 25 | Catterick Garrison | 48 | Broadband 75 Lifestyle 34 | 8,027 | £168,000 |
| 26 | Easingwold | 48 | Broadband 92 Healthcare 37 | 4,734 | £287,500 |
| 27 | New Marske | 48 | Schools 44 Healthcare 31 | 3,166 | £207,500 |
| 28 | Richmond | 48 | Healthcare 51 Lifestyle 46 | 7,872 | £270,000 |
| 29 | Saltburn-by-the-Sea | 48 | Healthcare 55 Broadband 83 | 6,029 | £215,000 |
| 30 | Scarborough | 48 | Lifestyle 65 Healthcare 53 | 57,220 | £172,250 |
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 North Yorkshire
The ranking above uses one weighting. Change any control below to re-rank all 44 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 North Yorkshire 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. North Yorkshire has 44 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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