United Kingdom · West Midlands · Local Authority
Herefordshire
Unitary authority · West Midlands, England · population ~194k · 99 state-funded schools
Expensive to buy into, but affordable to rent and safe. Herefordshire's median house price is 8 times median annual pay, higher than 45% of English authorities, and council tax is among the highest in the West Midlands at £2,574. However, median monthly rent is low, taking 26.4% of gross pay, and recorded crime is among the lowest in the region, ranking 3 of 30. School quality is below the regional median at 91.6% of pupils in Good or Outstanding places. This is a place for those prioritising low crime and affordable rent over home ownership and career prospects.
Written from the indicators on this page, 2026-08 data.
The signature
How Herefordshire ranks across 361 UK Local Authorities
Pay
£37,081/yr
Low
Worse than 74% of UK LAs
House price
£295,000
Mid-range
Around UK average
Rent
£815/mo
Affordable
Better than 71% of UK LAs
Council tax
£2,574/yr
Most expensive
Worse than 84% of UK LAs
Crime
50.6/1k
Safest
Better than 88% of UK LAs
Deprivation
18.9
Mid
Around UK average
Schools
90.9%
Weak
Worse than 67% 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
99 state-funded schools · Ofsted Feb 2026
90 of 99 (90.9%) rated Good or Outstanding under Ofsted's legacy framework. How we count →
The map
99 schools · pins coloured by Ofsted grade
Grades, phase and pupil numbers for all 99 schools, sortable and filterable.
Schools in Herefordshire →Places with similar signatures
Nearest by quintile position across pay · housing · tax · crime · IMD · schools
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.