United Kingdom · North West · Local Authority
Oldham
Metropolitan district · North West, England · population ~238k · 107 state-funded schools
Cheap to buy into, expensive to rent and live in. Oldham’s median house price is 5.9 times median annual pay, a multiple that is below the regional median, but rent is high, taking 30.8% of gross median earnings. Council tax is the highest in the North West, and recorded crime is also the highest in the region. Deprivation scores are high, and just 84.5% of pupils attend Good or Outstanding schools, below the North West median. This suits those prioritising a lower house price multiple over higher living costs and safety.
Written from the indicators on this page, 2026-08 data.
The signature
How Oldham ranks across 361 UK Local Authorities
Pay
£35,417/yr
Very low
Worse than 89% of UK LAs
House price
£207,875
Affordable
Better than 77% of UK LAs
Rent
£910/mo
Affordable
Better than 60% of UK LAs
Council tax
£2,602/yr
Most expensive
Worse than 90% of UK LAs
Crime
106.7/1k
Highest
Worse than 88% of UK LAs
Deprivation
33.2
Most deprived
Worse than 94% of UK LAs
Schools
86.8%
Concerning
Worse than 87% 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 106 (86.8%) rated Good or Outstanding under Ofsted's legacy framework. 1 school is 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 Oldham →Places with similar signatures
Nearest by quintile position across pay · housing · tax · crime · IMD · schools
Oldham 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.