United Kingdom · South West · Local Authority
Swindon
Unitary authority · South West, England · population ~223k · 87 state-funded schools
Affordable to buy into, but expensive to rent. Swindon's median house price is 7.1 times median annual pay, below the South West median of £315,000, but its median rent takes a significant 32.9% of gross median earnings, higher than the South West median of £1,020. While council tax is slightly below the South West median at £2,438, and recorded crime at 68.8 per 1,000 is not the worst in the region, deprivation is higher than the South West average at 18.62. This suits those prioritising home ownership affordability and decent schools, with 93% of pupils in Good or Outstanding places.
Written from the indicators on this page, 2026-08 data.
The signature
How Swindon ranks across 361 UK Local Authorities
Pay
£39,421/yr
Mid
Around UK average
House price
£280,000
Mid-range
Around UK average
Rent
£1,082/mo
Mid-range
Worse than 57% of UK LAs
Council tax
£2,438/yr
Mid
Around UK average
Crime
68.8/1k
Mid
Better than 56% of UK LAs
Deprivation
18.6
Mid
Around UK average
Schools
89.5%
Weak
Worse than 76% 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
87 state-funded schools · Ofsted Feb 2026
77 of 86 (89.5%) 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
87 schools · pins coloured by Ofsted grade
Grades, phase and pupil numbers for all 87 schools, sortable and filterable.
Schools in Swindon →Places with similar signatures
Nearest by quintile position across pay · housing · tax · crime · IMD · schools
Swindon 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.