United Kingdom · North West · Local Authority
Manchester
Metropolitan district · North West, England · population ~556k · 188 state-funded schools
High rents and crime are the price for Manchester's better-than-average schools. Rent consumes 43.4% of median gross pay, and house prices are 6.7 times annual earnings, both well above the North West median. Recorded crime is also high at 143.2 per 1,000, and deprivation scores are among the worst in the region. However, 90.3% of pupils attend Good or Outstanding schools, a figure higher than the North West median. This suits those prioritising education and who can afford the high cost of living.
Written from the indicators on this page, 2026-08 data.
The signature
How Manchester ranks across 361 UK Local Authorities
Pay
£37,211/yr
Low
Worse than 73% of UK LAs
House price
£247,500
Affordable
Better than 61% of UK LAs
Rent
£1,347/mo
Expensive
Worse than 75% of UK LAs
Council tax
£2,312/yr
Cheap
Better than 77% of UK LAs
Crime
143.2/1k
Highest
Worse than 98% of UK LAs
Deprivation
40.0
Most deprived
Worse than 98% of UK LAs
Schools
86.6%
Concerning
Worse than 88% 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
184 state-funded schools · Ofsted Feb 2026
155 of 179 (86.6%) rated Good or Outstanding under Ofsted's legacy framework. 5 schools are on the post-2024 report-card framework and don't roll up into the legacy total. How we count →
The map
188 schools · pins coloured by Ofsted grade
Grades, phase and pupil numbers for all 188 schools, sortable and filterable.
Schools in Manchester →Places with similar signatures
Nearest by quintile position across pay · housing · tax · crime · IMD · schools
Manchester 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.