United Kingdom · South West · Local Authority
Somerset
Unitary authority · South West, England · population ~564k · 268 state-funded schools
Affordable housing comes at the cost of lower earnings and poorer schools. Somerset's median house price is 7.7 times median annual pay, a more favourable multiple than the South West average, and rent takes a manageable 31.8% of gross pay. However, median weekly earnings are below the regional median at £710.60, and recorded crime is higher than average. Furthermore, only 81.3% of pupils are in Good or Outstanding schools, the lowest proportion in the South West. This offers a potential entry point for buyers prioritising property size over career prospects and educational outcomes.
Written from the indicators on this page, 2026-08 data.
The signature
How Somerset ranks across 361 UK Local Authorities
Pay
£36,951/yr
Low
Worse than 75% of UK LAs
House price
£285,000
Mid-range
Around UK average
Rent
£980/mo
Mid-range
Around UK average
Council tax
£2,561/yr
Most expensive
Worse than 83% of UK LAs
Crime
83.1/1k
High
Worse than 66% of UK LAs
Deprivation
19.0
Mid
Around UK average
Schools
81.0%
Concerning
Worse than 98% 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
265 state-funded schools · Ofsted Feb 2026
213 of 263 (81%) 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
268 schools · pins coloured by Ofsted grade
Grades, phase and pupil numbers for all 268 schools, sortable and filterable.
Schools in Somerset →Places with similar signatures
Nearest by quintile position across pay · housing · tax · crime · IMD · schools
Somerset 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.