United Kingdom · South West · Local Authority
Torbay
Unitary authority · South West, England · population ~136k · 43 state-funded schools
Affordable to enter but constrained by low wages and high social challenges, Torbay presents a difficult economic profile. While a median house price of £250,000 is among the lowest in the South West, it still represents 7.2 times the local median annual pay. Rent is similarly accessible compared to the regional median, yet it consumes 31% of gross earnings due to the limited wage pool. The area struggles with significant structural hurdles, recording the highest deprivation score in the region and a crime rate higher than 78% of England authorities. These figures suggest that while the cost of housing is lower than the regional norm, the trade-off is a local labour market that significantly trails behind the rest of the South West.
Written from the indicators on this page, 2026-10 data.
The signature
How Torbay ranks across 361 UK Local Authorities
Pay
£34,793/yr
Very low
Worse than 94% of UK LAs
House price
£250,000
Affordable
Better than 60% of UK LAs
Rent
£899/mo
Affordable
Better than 62% of UK LAs
Council tax
£2,470/yr
Expensive
Worse than 61% of UK LAs
Crime
93.4/1k
High
Worse than 78% of UK LAs
Deprivation
28.1
Most deprived
Worse than 84% of UK LAs
Schools
90.7%
Weak
Worse than 68% 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
50 state-funded schools · Ofsted Sep 2026
39 of 43 (90.7%) rated Good or Outstanding under Ofsted's legacy framework. 7 schools are on the post-2024 report-card framework and don't roll up into the legacy total. How we count →
The map
43 schools · pins coloured by Ofsted grade
Grades, phase and pupil numbers for all 43 schools, sortable and filterable.
Schools in Torbay →Places with similar signatures
Nearest by quintile position across pay · housing · tax · crime · IMD · schools
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.