The best places to retire in England and Wales
Areas where crime runs below 70 per 1,000 residents and at least 65% of homes are owner-occupied, ranked by the share of residents aged 65 and over. Somewhere a lot of people have already retired to is a stronger signal than any score anyone could invent.
PE36 (Hunstanton) tops the list on 43.5%, with WR13 (Malvern) at number 50 on 32.3%. 730 postcode areas met the thresholds for this ranking.
| # | Area | Aged 65+ | Avg price | Crime /1k | Schools Good+ | Liveability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | PE36 Hunstanton | 43.5% | £365,643 | 59.3 | — | 60/100 |
| 2 | EX9 Budleigh Salterton | 42.8% | £430,972 | 26.9 | 100.0% | 61/100 |
| 3 | EX12 Seaton | 41.7% | £312,403 | 42.9 | — | 56/100 |
| 4 | EX10 Sidmouth | 40.0% | £412,917 | 46.4 | 100.0% | 70/100 |
| 5 | CO13 Frinton-on-Sea | 40.0% | £353,941 | 49.5 | 100.0% | 66/100 |
| 6 | NR26 Sheringham | 39.9% | £306,392 | 50.2 | 100.0% | 69/100 |
| 7 | NR25 Holt | 39.9% | £458,403 | 54.0 | 100.0% | 63/100 |
| 8 | PE31 King's Lynn | 39.3% | £394,183 | 31.3 | 100.0% | 67/100 |
| 9 | PO40 Freshwater | 39.1% | £269,031 | 64.1 | — | 61/100 |
| 10 | BH22 Ferndown | 39.0% | £393,205 | 38.7 | 100.0% | 71/100 |
| 11 | SY6 Church Stretton | 38.9% | £444,281 | 30.5 | 100.0% | 56/100 |
| 12 | LN10 Woodhall Spa | 38.2% | £301,314 | 44.2 | 100.0% | 60/100 |
| 13 | DT7 Lyme Regis | 37.6% | £441,349 | 41.0 | 66.7% | 54/100 |
| 14 | CT7 Birchington | 37.3% | £318,942 | 63.4 | 100.0% | 63/100 |
| 15 | NR27 Cromer | 37.3% | £283,879 | 60.7 | 100.0% | 72/100 |
| 16 | BH25 New Milton | 37.2% | £394,817 | 57.1 | 83.3% | 66/100 |
| 17 | LA11 Grange-Over-Sands | 37.1% | £280,789 | 40.6 | 100.0% | 67/100 |
| 18 | PO11 Hayling Island | 37.0% | £351,378 | 68.7 | 100.0% | 73/100 |
| 19 | WR12 Broadway | 36.9% | £622,379 | 35.1 | 100.0% | 62/100 |
| 20 | BN16 Littlehampton | 36.0% | £415,995 | 55.7 | 100.0% | 74/100 |
| 21 | BH19 Swanage | 35.9% | £407,941 | 43.6 | 100.0% | 71/100 |
| 22 | DT8 Beaminster | 35.6% | £373,150 | 31.6 | 80.0% | 65/100 |
| 23 | SO41 Lymington | 35.3% | £555,726 | 44.7 | 100.0% | 74/100 |
| 24 | DT6 Bridport | 35.2% | £382,188 | 53.1 | 63.6% | 62/100 |
| 25 | HU18 Hornsea | 34.8% | £193,519 | 61.0 | 100.0% | 74/100 |
| 26 | BN25 Seaford | 34.8% | £360,661 | 47.5 | 100.0% | 79/100 |
| 27 | TQ6 Dartmouth | 34.7% | £469,864 | 54.0 | 100.0% | 60/100 |
| 28 | TQ5 Brixham | 34.6% | £280,615 | 64.8 | 85.7% | 79/100 |
| 29 | DE45 Bakewell | 34.5% | £428,978 | 54.9 | 87.5% | 65/100 |
| 30 | YO18 Pickering | 34.5% | £281,879 | 61.5 | 83.3% | 67/100 |
| 31 | PL13 Looe | 34.5% | £308,583 | 62.8 | 100.0% | 65/100 |
| 32 | TN30 Tenterden | 34.4% | £472,397 | 69.0 | 100.0% | 68/100 |
| 33 | IP19 Halesworth | 34.2% | £325,818 | 48.5 | 75.0% | 60/100 |
| 34 | PO38 Ventnor | 34.2% | £309,918 | 58.3 | 83.3% | 63/100 |
| 35 | NP8 Crickhowell | 33.8% | £383,755 | 34.9 | — | 51/100 |
| 36 | CT21 Hythe | 33.8% | £456,963 | 51.9 | 100.0% | 70/100 |
| 37 | DY12 Bewdley | 33.7% | £309,769 | 56.2 | 80.0% | 65/100 |
| 38 | BD24 Settle | 33.4% | £293,442 | 38.3 | 100.0% | 67/100 |
| 39 | PE37 Swaffham | 33.2% | £260,666 | 68.3 | 100.0% | 64/100 |
| 40 | TS9 Middlesbrough | 33.2% | £304,176 | 61.1 | 100.0% | 70/100 |
| 41 | TN28 New Romney | 33.1% | £327,121 | 60.3 | 100.0% | 69/100 |
| 42 | SA3 Swansea | 33.0% | £342,088 | 42.0 | — | 72/100 |
| 43 | BN20 Eastbourne | 32.9% | £388,269 | 63.2 | 71.4% | 67/100 |
| 44 | YO13 Scarborough | 32.8% | £296,186 | 48.5 | 80.0% | 62/100 |
| 45 | TQ14 Teignmouth | 32.7% | £317,140 | 64.7 | 83.3% | 73/100 |
| 46 | NR12 Norwich | 32.7% | £309,383 | 40.8 | 93.3% | 72/100 |
| 47 | DT10 Sturminster Newton | 32.6% | £390,961 | 42.7 | 85.7% | 75/100 |
| 48 | SY8 Ludlow | 32.5% | £305,486 | 57.9 | 100.0% | 71/100 |
| 49 | NR11 Norwich | 32.3% | £315,852 | 37.8 | 92.3% | 67/100 |
| 50 | WR13 Malvern | 32.3% | £438,374 | 38.2 | 83.3% | 66/100 |
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.