County ranking
Best places to live in Somerset
30 towns ranked by overall liveability score, from official UK data.
This ranking covers the 40 Somerset towns above 3,000 people that we can score in at least 8 of 9 categories, with the best 30 listed. Two towns tie at the top on 62/100: Bath and Norton Fitzwarren. Somerset as a whole runs 3.5 points below the national norm: a median of 50.5/100 across its 40 qualifying towns, against 54/100 for comparable UK towns.
The top five span £258,500 in Taunton to £447,000 in Batheaston on median house price. Norton Fitzwarren's second 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. From top to bottom of this table there are 22 points: 62 at the head, 40 at the foot. Full breakdowns for the leaders: Bath, Norton Fitzwarren and Taunton.
| # | Town | Score | Strongest categories | Population | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bath | 62 | Transport 84 Lifestyle 81 | 92,796 | £445,000 |
| 2 | Norton Fitzwarren | 62 | Lifestyle 90 Healthcare 54 | 3,590 | £262,500 |
| 3 | Taunton | 59 | Lifestyle 90 Healthcare 76 | 62,636 | £258,500 |
| 4 | Batheaston | 58 | Healthcare 54 Lifestyle 52 | 3,432 | £447,000 |
| 5 | Nailsea | 58 | Transport 52 Lifestyle 50 | 15,307 | £364,000 |
| 6 | Clevedon | 57 | Transport 52 Lifestyle 52 | 21,417 | £340,500 |
| 7 | Keynsham | 57 | Schools 61 Transport 57 | 16,323 | £395,000 |
| 8 | Midsomer Norton | 57 | Schools 63 Healthcare 53 | 13,865 | £311,250 |
| 9 | Portishead | 57 | Lifestyle 54 Transport 50 | 23,874 | £380,000 |
| 10 | Weston-super-Mare | 56 | Transport 76 Healthcare 59 | 80,630 | £260,000 |
| 11 | Paulton | 54 | Healthcare 51 Transport 49 | 5,919 | £292,000 |
| 12 | Pill | 54 | Healthcare 49 Transport 52 | 4,496 | £365,000 |
| 13 | Bridgwater | 53 | Lifestyle 76 Healthcare 67 | 39,091 | £225,625 |
| 14 | Peasedown St John | 53 | Healthcare 62 Transport 31 | 6,325 | £313,500 |
| 15 | Saltford | 53 | Schools 40 Lifestyle 37 | 3,971 | £570,000 |
| 16 | Street | 53 | Lifestyle 58 Broadband 86 | 12,671 | £280,000 |
| 17 | Wellington (Somerset West and Taunton) | 52 | Lifestyle 90 Schools 51 | 10,587 | £260,000 |
| 18 | Yeovil | 52 | Healthcare 59 Schools 61 | 41,401 | £238,000 |
| 19 | Long Ashton | 51 | Economic health 84 Lifestyle 34 | 5,251 | £509,750 |
| 20 | Radstock | 51 | Healthcare 56 Schools 57 | 10,735 | £280,000 |
| 21 | Backwell | 50 | Transport 44 Economic health 83 | 4,026 | £452,500 |
| 22 | Frome | 49 | Transport 57 Healthcare 53 | 25,329 | £305,000 |
| 23 | Winscombe and Sandford | 49 | Healthcare 30 Environment 76 | 4,524 | £487,500 |
| 24 | Martock | 48 | Broadband 92 Healthcare 33 | 4,343 | £259,500 |
| 25 | Ilminster | 47 | Healthcare 55 Broadband 82 | 5,473 | £236,500 |
| 26 | Yatton | 46 | Transport 37 Broadband 76 | 7,397 | £340,500 |
| 27 | Shepton Mallet | 45 | Healthcare 60 Schools 44 | 10,170 | £275,000 |
| 28 | Wells | 43 | Healthcare 46 Lifestyle 37 | 11,195 | £335,000 |
| 29 | Cheddar | 42 | Healthcare 36 Lifestyle 39 | 5,555 | £340,000 |
| 30 | Glastonbury | 40 | Healthcare 54 Lifestyle 51 | 8,449 | £262,000 |
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.
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The ranking above uses one weighting. Change any control below to re-rank all 40 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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HighbridgeWatchetHow this ranking was built
Every settlement in Somerset 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. Somerset has 40 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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