United Kingdom · South West · Local Authority
City of Bristol
Unitary authority · South West, England · population ~466k · 151 state-funded schools
High costs and high crime are the price of a decent job in Bristol. While median weekly earnings are above the South West average at £780.50, this is dwarfed by the region's highest median monthly rent of £1,888, which takes a steep 55.8% of gross pay. House prices are also high, at 8.6 times annual earnings, and the city has the highest recorded crime rate in the South West at 130.3 per 1,000. Council tax is also among the highest in the region. This is a place for those who can afford the premium for a large urban labour market, and who are not deterred by the significant safety and affordability challenges.
Written from the indicators on this page, 2026-08 data.
The signature
How City of Bristol ranks across 361 UK Local Authorities
Pay
£40,586/yr
High
Better than 60% of UK LAs
House price
£351,000
Expensive
Worse than 70% of UK LAs
Rent
£1,888/mo
Very expensive
Worse than 94% of UK LAs
Council tax
£2,714/yr
Most expensive
Worse than 98% of UK LAs
Crime
130.3/1k
Highest
Worse than 97% of UK LAs
Deprivation
26.4
High
Worse than 79% of UK LAs
Schools
84.6%
Concerning
Worse than 95% of UK LAs
Colour shows quintile position against 361 UK Local Authorities. Green is the best position for someone moving here; red is the worst. Direction is set per indicator — higher pay, lower rent, less crime, less deprivation are all green.
Schools
149 state-funded schools · Ofsted Feb 2026
121 of 143 (84.6%) rated Good or Outstanding under Ofsted's legacy framework. 6 schools are on the post-2024 report-card framework and don't roll up into the legacy total. How we count →
The map
151 schools · pins coloured by Ofsted grade
Grades, phase and pupil numbers for all 151 schools, sortable and filterable.
Schools in City of Bristol →Places with similar signatures
Nearest by quintile position across pay · housing · tax · crime · IMD · schools
City of Bristol head-to-heads
What we don't know yet
Commute times · GP appointment availability · broadband speeds · air quality at LA level · green-space proximity · public transport coverage. These matter for a relocation decision. We'll add them when the source data is reliable nationally and consistent across LA boundaries.