Placetrics
City · North East

Living in Darlington

14 neighbourhoods · 66 sub-areas
Crime vs nat. avg
≈ nat. avg
In line with nat. avg · 90.3 / 1k / yr · #271 of 318 cities
Good schools
100%
#1 of 296 cities
Commute to hub
70 min
#157 of 318 cities
Jobs density
0.51
#73 of 318 cities
Avg rent
£666/mo
+6.0% YoY · #12 of 314 cities
Council tax
£159/mo
Estimated (Band D)
Section 1 / 8

Neighbourhoods in Darlington

Tap any row or map polygon to drill into that neighbourhood — hovering on desktop will preview the link before you click. Switch the tab strip above the table to focus on Affordability, Schools, Transport, Safety or Wealth — the columns swap and the default sort follows.

14 neighbourhoods · 66 sub-areas

Rent, scores and YoY change at a glance.

Rise Carr£521+6.0%8510
Darlington 016£527+6.0%9223
Bank Top£539+6.0%8522
Firthmoor£562+6.0%9953
Albert Hill & Red Hall£588+6.0%858
Haughton Le Skerne£597+6.0%9854
Cockerton & Hopetown£608+6.0%9762
Park East£609+6.0%8513
Harrowgate Hill£622+6.0%9862
Whinfield£696+6.0%9377
Faverdale, Heighington & Sadberge£764+6.0%7577
Middleton & Hurworth£848+6.0%7939
College & Park West£859+6.0%9680
Hummersknott£902+6.0%9693

Sources: ONS, MHCLG, DfT, DESNZ, Defra, Police.uk, Ofsted, Ofcom, HM Land Registry. Some columns (salary, council tax, HPI) are published at council-area level.

Section 2 / 8

Where to look in Darlington

Three short answers to "where should I focus?" in Darlington. Each list is filtered from the same neighbourhood data above — the basis of each shortlist is stated above the list so you know what's been weighted.

Top 5 cheapest

Lowest estimated monthly rent. Rent is the LAD-published ONS PIPR median, scaled per neighbourhood by local sale prices (Land Registry).

  1. 1.Rise Carr£521/mo
  2. 2.Darlington 016£527/mo
  3. 3.Bank Top£539/mo
  4. 4.Firthmoor£562/mo
  5. 5.Albert Hill & Red Hall£588/mo
Top 5 most desirable

Highest composite liveability — combines safety, schools, transport access and rental affordability into one 0–100 score (higher = more liveable).

  1. 1.Firthmoor99/100
  2. 2.Haughton Le Skerne98/100
  3. 3.Harrowgate Hill98/100
  4. 4.Cockerton & Hopetown97/100
  5. 5.College & Park West96/100
Section 3 / 8

Cost of living

Median rent and council tax across Darlington.

Avg rent
£666/mo
#12 of 314 cities
Sale price
£145,375
+3.4% YoY
Yrs to deposit
2.5 yr
Rent & price breakdownBy bedroom count · property type · affordability
council-area level rent by bedroom
ONS PIPR median for the council area
1 bed£480/mo
2 bed£608/mo
3 bed£740/mo
4 bed£1,060/mo
Sale price by property type
HMLR HPI average
Detached£276,632
Semi-detached£173,331
Terraced£127,837
Flat£95,283
Affordability
Price-to-earnings5.0×
Rent / take-home27%
Council tax (estimated, full council area)£1,905/yr
Mortgage (25y, 5%)£798/mo

Rent: ONS PIPR (council area). Council tax: VOA + MHCLG. Sale prices: HM Land Registry.

Section 4 / 8

Safety in Darlington

Crime in Darlington runs at in line with the national average. Bottom quartile (#271 of 318 cities) The supporting per-1,000-residents-per-year rate is 90.3, averaged across the council area's neighbourhoods.

How crime is measured

What's counted. Incidents recorded by territorial police forces and published to data.police.uk each month. Rates use the latest 12 months of data divided by the area's mid-2024 ONS resident population — so the figure is reported incidents per 1,000 residents per year.

Anti-social behaviour is the largest category in most areas and is worth reading carefully — it's a community-reports bucket (noise, rowdiness, nuisance), not "crime" in the legal sense. ASB and shoplifting are weighted lower than violent offences in the safety score on each page.

Caveats. The denominator is residents, so workday and tourist destinations can look worse than they feel for someone living there. Greater Manchester forces stopped publishing to data.police.uk in 2020, so figures for those areas are intentionally blank rather than misleadingly low.

Total crime / 1k / yr
90.3
#271 of 318 cities
Crime detailTop crime types · safest neighbourhoods in this council area
All crime categories
incidents / 1,000 residents / year — sorted high → low
Violent & sexual offences
35.8
Anti-social behaviour
22.3
Criminal damage & arson
10.2
Public order
5.8
Shoplifting
5.4
Other theft
4.5
Vehicle crime
4.2
Burglary
3.7
Other crime
2.3
Drugs
2.0
Robbery
1.2
Possession of weapons
0.9
Bicycle theft
0.8
Theft from the person
0.8
Safest neighbourhoods in Darlington
by safety score (higher = safer)
Hummersknott93/100
College & Park West80/100
Whinfield77/100

Source: data.police.uk — incident counts adjusted for population, then averaged across the council area's neighbourhoods. National average = England + Wales population-weighted mean.

Section 5 / 8

Schools in Darlington

100% of schools serving Darlington are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted. Best 5% nationally (#1 of 296 cities)

Good or Outstanding
100%
#1 of 296 cities
Good w/in 2 km
45%
#41 of 318 cities
School breakdownOfsted distribution · best neighbourhoods for schools
Ofsted rating distribution
Good100%
Outstanding (count)0
Good (count)1
Requires improvement0
Inadequate0
Best neighbourhoods for schools in Darlington
by school score
Bank Top99/100
Park East98/100
Firthmoor97/100

Ofsted school inspection ratings, latest inspection per school.

Section 6 / 8

Transport in Darlington

Modelled door-to-door commute from this council area to nearby employment hubs. Closest first.

To Leeds
70 min
Median across local areas
To Sheffield
95 min
Median across local areas
To Manchester
122 min
Median across local areas
Transport detailAll city commute times · mode share · best-connected neighbourhoods
Commute to major UK cities
public transport, off-peak typical
Leeds
70 min
Sheffield
95 min
Manchester
122 min
Edinburgh
133 min
London
154 min
Birmingham
160 min
Liverpool
164 min
Glasgow
206 min
Bristol
278 min
Cardiff
314 min
How residents travel to work
Census 2021, mode share
Car59%Public4%Active12%WFH22%
Best-connected neighbourhoods in Darlington
by transport score
Rise Carr96/100
Bank Top92/100
Darlington 01690/100

DfT Journey Time Statistics + ONS Travel-to-Work.

Section 7 / 8

Job access from Darlington

Darlington has 0.51 jobs per resident locally. Top quartile

Jobs per resident
0.51
#73 of 318 cities
5y jobs growth
+10.9%
Job access detailReachability tiers · sector mix in this council area
Reachable jobs by mode
Drive — 100 jobs6 min
PT — 100 jobs6 min
Drive — 500 jobs7 min
PT — 500 jobs11 min
Drive — 5,000 jobs10 min
PT — 5,000 jobs20 min
Local job mix by sector
ONS BRES, % of local jobs
Retail & hospitality
21.0%
Health & social care
17.0%
Manufacturing
6.7%
Education
6.7%
Professional & business svcs
6.2%
Construction
3.7%
Finance & insurance
2.8%
Tech & ICT
2.2%

ONS BRES (jobs density) + DfT job-accessibility minutes.

FAQ

Frequently asked about Darlington

Short answers to the questions we get most often. Each answer is anchored in the data above and links onward where you can dig deeper.

What is the average rent in Darlington?
The median monthly rent across Darlington is £666, based on ONS Private Rental Prices data. Individual neighbourhoods vary — see the shortlist above for the cheapest and most desirable areas.
Where is the cheapest place to rent in Darlington?
The cheapest neighbourhood in Darlington by estimated median rent is Rise Carr at approximately £521/month. The full top-five cheapest list and our methodology are above.
What's the best neighbourhood to live in Darlington?
By our composite liveability score (which blends safety, transport, schools, rent affordability and EPC), the top-ranked neighbourhood in Darlington is Firthmoor at 99/100. The score is editorial; see /methodology/scoring/liveability for the formula.
Is Darlington a safe area?
Darlington has an average safety score of 47/100 across its constituent neighbourhoods (higher is safer). The score is the national percentile rank of police-recorded crimes per 1,000 residents per year, inverted so 100 means the safest 1% of England + Wales.
What is council tax in Darlington?
The most common council tax band in Darlington is not yet published, with the Band D annual charge currently around £2,065. Council tax is set at the local authority level so the same banding applies to every postcode within Darlington.
What is the average salary in Darlington?
The median annual resident salary in Darlington is £30,100, per ONS ASHE 2025. This is salary for people who live in Darlington, not for people who commute in to work there. Workplace median salary is published separately.
What is the average house price in Darlington?
The average property price in Darlington is approximately £157,389 according to HM Land Registry's House Price Index. Individual neighbourhoods vary — typically ±20% around this council area median.
What's the rental yield in Darlington?
Gross rental yield in Darlington is approximately 4.8% — the council-area level median rent annualised over the council-area level median sale price. Net yield (after agency, void, maintenance and tax) typically runs 30–40% lower.
How long does it take to save a deposit in Darlington?
Saving a 10% deposit at the council area median sale price on the council area median salary, while putting away 10% of takehome pay each month, takes approximately 2.5 years in Darlington. Faster if you save more, slower if rents are eating into savings.
Is gigabit broadband available in Darlington?
100% of premises in Darlington are gigabit-capable per Ofcom Connected Nations 2025. Coverage is patchier in older terraces and rural fringes — check your specific postcode for service availability.
What's the unemployment rate in Darlington?
3.7% of 16-64 residents in Darlington are on the DWP Claimant Count — Universal Credit while seeking work, or Jobseeker's Allowance. That's the live monthly local indicator. It's narrower than the ONS Labour Force Survey "ILO unemployment rate" (which counts anyone actively job-seeking on a separate denominator) and narrower again than Census 2021's "% unemployed" (which is calculated against all 16+ residents and so isn't directly comparable).
How many neighbourhoods are in Darlington?
Darlington contains 14 neighbourhood neighbourhoods covering 66 sub-areas (local areas). Browse the full list at the bottom of this page or use the neighbourhood map above to drill into a specific area.
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Section 8 / 8

All sub-areas in Darlington

Every local area, ordered by crawl priority. Most readers want the neighbourhood-level view — these are for deep-link cases or external search-engine arrivals.