County ranking
Best places to live in Shropshire
16 towns ranked by overall liveability score, from official UK data.
This ranking covers the 16 Shropshire towns above 3,000 people that we can score in at least 8 of 9 categories, with the best 16 listed. Top of the list is Shrewsbury at 64/100, four points ahead of second-placed Bayston Hill (60). Across all 16 qualifying towns the county median is 49/100, 5 points below the 54/100 median for UK towns of this size.
On price, Oswestry is the top five's cheapest at a median of £205,000. Bayston Hill, also in the top five, runs to £272,500. Shrewsbury's first place leans heavily on one category: lifestyle, at 90/100 against a national town median of 21/100, far further ahead of the norm than its healthcare, the next strongest. There is a sharp drop after third, from 58 down to 53, the biggest single step in the table. Full breakdowns for the leaders: Shrewsbury, Bayston Hill and Newport (Telford and Wrekin).
| # | Town | Score | Strongest categories | Population | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shrewsbury | 64 | Lifestyle 90 Healthcare 69 | 65,847 | £260,000 |
| 2 | Bayston Hill | 60 | Lifestyle 68 Healthcare 54 | 4,866 | £272,500 |
| 3 | Newport (Telford and Wrekin) | 58 | Healthcare 58 Schools 46 | 14,383 | £270,000 |
| 4 | Oswestry | 53 | Healthcare 68 Lifestyle 59 | 18,796 | £205,000 |
| 5 | Bridgnorth | 51 | Lifestyle 51 Healthcare 46 | 11,477 | £260,000 |
| 6 | Telford | 50 | Healthcare 51 Lifestyle 54 | 141,843 | £215,000 |
| 7 | Wem | 50 | Lifestyle 43 Healthcare 35 | 6,307 | £253,000 |
| 8 | Albrighton | 49 | Healthcare 28 Economic health 77 | 5,758 | £315,000 |
| 9 | Broseley | 49 | Healthcare 47 Lifestyle 38 | 4,761 | £241,500 |
| 10 | Ludlow | 49 | Healthcare 55 Lifestyle 55 | 9,663 | £261,000 |
| 11 | Church Stretton | 46 | Environment 80 Healthcare 27 | 3,270 | £365,000 |
| 12 | Market Drayton | 45 | Lifestyle 45 Broadband 83 | 12,617 | £225,000 |
| 13 | Shifnal | 45 | Broadband 81 Lifestyle 35 | 6,019 | £280,000 |
| 14 | Whitchurch (Shropshire) | 45 | Broadband 95 Lifestyle 54 | 9,300 | £212,500 |
| 15 | Ellesmere | 44 | Healthcare 28 Environment 68 | 4,081 | £230,000 |
| 16 | Highley | 44 | Broadband 79 Healthcare 35 | 3,520 | £175,000 |
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 Shropshire
The ranking above uses one weighting. Change any control below to re-rank all 16 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.
Pick a persona or set a filter to re-rank 16 towns in place.
How this ranking was built
Every settlement in Shropshire 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. Shropshire has 16 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.
Check your exact postcode
Get a personalised score for any UK postcode, tailored to what matters most to you.
Score my postcode