United Kingdom · South East · Local Authority
Portsmouth
Unitary authority · South East, England · population ~215k · 61 state-funded schools
Affordable to buy into, but constrained by low local pay and high crime. Portsmouth offers a median house price of £260,000, which is one of the lowest in the South East, yet this remains a 7.1x multiple of annual earnings. Rent is a significant burden, consuming 44.7% of median gross pay. While the council tax bill of £2,292 is among the lowest in the region, the trade-off is a recorded crime rate of 112.9 per 1,000 people, a figure higher than 93% of England authorities. This location suits those who need a lower entry point into the property market and are willing to navigate a challenging local environment to secure it.
Written from the indicators on this page, 2026-10 data.
The signature
How Portsmouth ranks across 361 UK Local Authorities
Pay
£36,457/yr
Low
Worse than 79% of UK LAs
House price
£260,000
Mid-range
Better than 57% of UK LAs
Rent
£1,357/mo
Expensive
Worse than 76% of UK LAs
Council tax
£2,292/yr
Cheapest
Better than 82% of UK LAs
Crime
112.9/1k
Highest
Worse than 93% of UK LAs
Deprivation
26.9
Most deprived
Worse than 81% of UK LAs
Schools
93.3%
Mid
Around UK average
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
75 state-funded schools · Ofsted Sep 2026
56 of 60 (93.3%) rated Good or Outstanding under Ofsted's legacy framework. 15 schools are on the post-2024 report-card framework and don't roll up into the legacy total. How we count →
The map
61 schools · pins coloured by Ofsted grade
Grades, phase and pupil numbers for all 61 schools, sortable and filterable.
Schools in Portsmouth →Places with similar signatures
Nearest by quintile position across pay · housing · tax · crime · IMD · schools
Portsmouth 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.