Best and worst places in England to raise a family — full list

The UK is full of beautiful places, but if you have children, then finding the right place to live is crucial. When you’re looking for a home to raise kids, there’s a lot of things to consider.

Budget, schooling and wages are all important to think about. Using data from Ofsted, Oxford Home Schooling has ranked places across the UK to find the best – and worst – places to live as a family. The study took four factors – the percentage of schools ranked good or outstanding by Ofsted, the percentage of places available in schools, and the affordability of houses based on average wages – to find out which places rank highest and lowest.

North Lincolnshire came in first place as it scored highly across all the categories. More than 85% of its schools are scored highly by Ofsted and one in seven places were not filled last year. As well as having great schools with places available, North Lincolnshire is also an affordable place to live. According to the data, the average wage is £25,000 and the average house price is £149,000 – meaning wages make up 17% of the average house price. This is better than the average across England, where income makes up only 13% of housing prices.

As for the worst places for families, half of them are in London. Lewisham is the lowest ranked of them all, with the number of students applying for school places coming in 35% higher than the number of placements available.

To add insult to injury, less than two thirds (64%) of the schools are rated as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. It’s also a very expensive place to live, with homes averaging almost £400,000 compared to the average wage of £35,000. This means wages make up just 9% of the sky high housing prices.