England’s Most Family-Friendly Towns & Cities

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If you’re looking for the perfect place to settle down with your family, factors such as a quality school, things to do, especially outdoors, and a low crime rate are important factors to take into account when finding a place to settle into your forever home.

We’ve ranked the 40 most populated towns and cities in the country on twelve family-friendly factors to reveal the best places to settle down and raise a family.

Best Towns & Cities For:

Overall Score: York

65.46 – Out of 100

Cheapest Childcare: Plymouth

£466.67 – per Month

Most “Outstanding” Schools: Slough

35% – of Schools Deemed ‘Outstanding’

Safety: York

57.89 – Recorded Crimes per 1,000 Population

Earnings: London

£22.29 – Average Hourly Pay

Affordable Housing: Sunderland

£116,393 – Average House Price

Things to Do: York

25.07 – Kids Attractions per 100,000 People

Eating Out: Slough

359.19 – Child-Friendly Restaurants per 100,000 People

Enjoying Nature: Norwich

9.14 – Nature Parks per 100,000 People

Adventure Activities: Cambridge

9.36 – “Good for Kids” Outdoor Activities per 100,000 People

Young Families: Slough

78.40% – of Households with Dependent Children

Cost of Internet: Middlesbrough

£25.83 – 60 Mbps or More, Unlimited Data, Cable/ADSL

Broadband Speed

107.0Mbit/s – medium download speed

England’s Most Family-Friendly Towns & Cities – Ranked

Methodology

We analysed 40 of the most populated towns and cities in the UK and gave each a normalised score out of 100 on the following twelve factors. We then took an average of these twelve scores for each place to determine its overall score out of 100.

Note: while we initially set out to compare the most populated cities in the UK as a whole, the differences between educational institutions across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (as well as a lack of comparable data in some other sections) meant we had to limit our research to England.

Private Childcare Monthly Cost

The average monthly cost of private preschool/kindergarten full-day childcare according to Numbeo.

% of ‘Outstanding’ Schools

The percentage number of schools rated as ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted according to GOV.UK. Where the data for the city or town itself was unavailable, the data for the local authority in which the city/town is located was taken. For example, Cambridgeshire for Cambridge and

Northamptonshire for Northampton.

Recorded crime rate per 1,000 population/households 

The number of recorded crime rate per 1,000 population/households for headline offences in the year ending September 2020. For local authorities in Manchester, including Manchester, the data collected was from the most recent data set available, which was the year ending March 2019. This is due to the implementation of a new IT system in July 2019, Greater Manchester Police were unable to supply data for the period July 2019 to September 2020. 

Average Hourly Pay

The average hourly pay for full-time employees according to the Office for National Statistics.

Average House Price

The average house prices from each town and city as of November 2020 according to the Land Registry UK House Price index.

‘Good for Kids’ Attractions per 100,000 People

The number of attractions tagged as being ‘Good for Kids’, per 100,000 population according to TripAdvisor.

‘Child-Friendly’ Restaurants per 100,000 People

The number of restaurants tagged as being ‘Child-Friendly’, per 100,000 population according to TripAdvisor.

Nature Parks per 100,000 People

The number of ‘parks’ per 100,000 people in the local area, according to the Nature and Parks section of TripAdvisor as of 10th February 2021. (view source)

“Good for Kids” Outdoor Activities per 100,000 People

The number of outdoor activities tagged as being ‘Child-Friendly’, per 100,000 population according to TripAdvisor.

% of Households with Dependent Children

The percentage of households with a dependent child according to 2011 Census data, accessed at Nomis.

Internet (60 Mbps or More, Unlimited Data, Cable/ADSL)

The average monthly cost of internet broadband (60 Mbps or More, Unlimited Data, Cable/ADSL) according to Numbeo.

Median download speed (Mbit/s)

The median download speed as per the “fixed performance local and unitary authority data” data set from Ofcom.