United Kingdom · West Midlands · Local Authority
Dudley
Metropolitan district · West Midlands, England · population ~322k · 107 state-funded schools
Affordable to buy into, but with significant downsides. Dudley offers a median house price 6.5 times median annual pay, lower than the West Midlands median, and its Band D council tax is the lowest in the region at £2,145. However, median weekly earnings are below the regional average at £707.10, and recorded crime is higher than the West Midlands median at 74.8 per 1,000. Deprivation is also high, with a score of 24.1, and only 88.8% of pupils are in Good or Outstanding schools. This suits those prioritising lower upfront costs and council tax over career prospects and local safety.
Written from the indicators on this page, 2026-08 data.
The signature
How Dudley ranks across 361 UK Local Authorities
Pay
£36,769/yr
Low
Worse than 77% of UK LAs
House price
£240,000
Affordable
Better than 64% of UK LAs
Rent
£846/mo
Affordable
Better than 67% of UK LAs
Council tax
£2,145/yr
Cheapest
Better than 93% of UK LAs
Crime
74.8/1k
Mid
Around UK average
Deprivation
24.1
High
Worse than 71% of UK LAs
Schools
87.6%
Concerning
Worse than 84% 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
107 state-funded schools · Ofsted Feb 2026
92 of 105 (87.6%) rated Good or Outstanding under Ofsted's legacy framework. 2 schools are on the post-2024 report-card framework and don't roll up into the legacy total. How we count →
The map
107 schools · pins coloured by Ofsted grade
Grades, phase and pupil numbers for all 107 schools, sortable and filterable.
Schools in Dudley →Places with similar signatures
Nearest by quintile position across pay · housing · tax · crime · IMD · schools
Dudley 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.