The best areas for schools in England and Wales
Ranked on the share of Ofsted-rated schools graded Good or Outstanding, across 26,824 schools. A percentage rather than a count, so an area is not rewarded simply for being large — and areas with fewer than eight Ofsted-rated schools are left out, because one inspection either way would swing them from top to bottom. Independent schools are not inspected by Ofsted and so do not count towards either figure.
N1 (London) tops the list on 100.0%, with B21 (Birmingham) at number 50 on 100.0%. 1,292 postcode areas met the thresholds for this ranking.
| # | Area | Schools Good+ | Avg price | Crime /1k | Liveability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | N1 London | 100.0% | £945,654 | 173.5 | 87/100 |
| 2 | SW19 London | 100.0% | £908,554 | 78.8 | 86/100 |
| 3 | AL5 Harpenden | 100.0% | £860,421 | 48.9 | 86/100 |
| 4 | M33 Sale | 100.0% | £343,992 | — | 86/100 |
| 5 | N17 London | 100.0% | £513,689 | 145.6 | 79/100 |
| 6 | W12 London | 100.0% | £849,176 | 181.2 | 87/100 |
| 7 | E7 London | 100.0% | £481,670 | 118.0 | 85/100 |
| 8 | W6 London | 100.0% | £1,139,988 | 196.7 | 78/100 |
| 9 | BR3 Beckenham | 100.0% | £564,145 | 86.7 | 88/100 |
| 10 | E13 London | 100.0% | £398,088 | 131.9 | 88/100 |
| 11 | E6 London | 100.0% | £451,557 | 130.2 | 83/100 |
| 12 | W9 London | 100.0% | £918,739 | 135.6 | 86/100 |
| 13 | AL4 St. Albans | 100.0% | £637,981 | 62.0 | 87/100 |
| 14 | E12 London | 100.0% | £434,271 | 87.7 | 83/100 |
| 15 | E9 London | 100.0% | £654,792 | 161.5 | 85/100 |
| 16 | GU9 Farnham | 100.0% | £528,075 | 56.9 | 86/100 |
| 17 | LS29 Ilkley | 100.0% | £416,578 | 44.1 | 83/100 |
| 18 | NN4 Northampton | 100.0% | £382,247 | 78.4 | 78/100 |
| 19 | SW17 London | 100.0% | £693,308 | 109.9 | 85/100 |
| 20 | SW6 London | 100.0% | £1,206,926 | 102.2 | 82/100 |
| 21 | TW1 Twickenham | 100.0% | £911,008 | 80.5 | 82/100 |
| 22 | AL10 Hatfield | 100.0% | £418,330 | 137.1 | 83/100 |
| 23 | B8 Birmingham | 100.0% | £165,379 | 95.7 | 83/100 |
| 24 | BD3 Bradford | 100.0% | £134,094 | 138.9 | 80/100 |
| 25 | BR1 Bromley | 100.0% | £568,971 | 119.4 | 84/100 |
| 26 | BR6 Orpington | 100.0% | £582,556 | 71.7 | 87/100 |
| 27 | E8 London | 100.0% | £709,831 | 198.2 | 88/100 |
| 28 | EN4 Barnet | 100.0% | £704,922 | 69.9 | 80/100 |
| 29 | HA5 Pinner | 100.0% | £645,326 | 62.3 | 85/100 |
| 30 | HA8 Edgware | 100.0% | £512,475 | 94.2 | 78/100 |
| 31 | IG8 Woodford Green | 100.0% | £598,180 | 59.4 | 82/100 |
| 32 | KT2 Kingston upon Thames | 100.0% | £831,632 | 66.9 | 79/100 |
| 33 | M19 Manchester | 100.0% | £220,069 | — | 83/100 |
| 34 | ME14 Maidstone | 100.0% | £376,612 | 119.5 | 83/100 |
| 35 | N16 London | 100.0% | £719,670 | 106.4 | 79/100 |
| 36 | NE8 Gateshead | 100.0% | £144,539 | 160.5 | 72/100 |
| 37 | NW1 London | 100.0% | £1,657,008 | 257.3 | 77/100 |
| 38 | SE16 London | 100.0% | £610,615 | 115.0 | 82/100 |
| 39 | SL3 Slough | 100.0% | £591,168 | 87.3 | 79/100 |
| 40 | SO41 Lymington | 100.0% | £555,726 | 44.7 | 74/100 |
| 41 | ST6 Stoke-on-Trent | 100.0% | £144,007 | 135.7 | 81/100 |
| 42 | SW16 London | 100.0% | £533,083 | 101.0 | 81/100 |
| 43 | TW13 Feltham | 100.0% | £377,430 | 112.5 | 84/100 |
| 44 | TW2 Twickenham | 100.0% | £617,049 | 60.1 | 87/100 |
| 45 | UB2 Southall | 100.0% | £609,896 | 159.1 | 76/100 |
| 46 | UB6 Greenford | 100.0% | £585,246 | 100.6 | 81/100 |
| 47 | WA14 Altrincham | 100.0% | £496,787 | — | 86/100 |
| 48 | WD18 Watford | 100.0% | £448,409 | 149.1 | 85/100 |
| 49 | AL1 St. Albans | 100.0% | £628,956 | 110.3 | 83/100 |
| 50 | B21 Birmingham | 100.0% | £165,741 | 161.8 | 82/100 |
How this ranking is built
Every figure is calculated from official data by postcode area — the outward code, the part of a postcode before the space. Sold prices are what buyers actually paid, as registered with HM Land Registry. Crime is street-level police data matched to postcode areas through the neighbourhoods inside them. School ratings are current Ofsted grades across 26,824 schools. Population, tenure and household figures come from the 2021 Census.
Areas with too few sales or residents to rank meaningfully are excluded, as are non-residential ones — business parks, airports and single-company campuses have sold prices but nobody lives in them. Where a figure is unknown the area is left out of that ranking rather than counted as zero.