How our scores work
Every score in a Postcodewise report comes from official open data and is worked out the same way for every area in the country. These pages explain each one, including what it can’t tell you.
One scale for every score
A score isn’t a grade out of 100. It tells you how an area compares with the rest of the country, which makes different topics comparable at a glance.
Work out one figure per area
For example, the crime recorded in a neighbourhood last month, or the stations and bus stops within 3 km.
Do the same for every area in the country
The same calculation runs across the whole country, so every area is measured the same way.
Split them into ten equal groups
Areas are sorted from worst to best and divided into tenths, called deciles.
Score by group
The best tenth scores 100, the next 90, down to 10 for the weakest tenth. Higher is always better, even when the figure behind it (like crime) is better when lower.
- 10
- 20
- 30
- 40
- 50
- 60
- 70
- 80
- 90
- 100
So a score of 70 means the area is in the seventh tenth: better than around 60% of areas and behind around 30%. Two areas with a score of 70 can still differ quite a lot, because each tenth covers a range.
By topic
- SafetyRecorded crime in the neighbourhood, ranked against every other neighbourhood.Police.uk
- SchoolsThe nearest schools and the average of their latest Ofsted grades.Department for Education and Ofsted
- BroadbandTop available download speed, full fibre, and 4G and 5G coverage at the postcode.Ofcom
- EnvironmentBackground air pollution, long-term flood risk and nearby green space.Defra, Environment Agency and Ordnance Survey
- TransportRailway, metro and bus stops within 3 km.Department for Transport
- HousingSold prices, how they have moved and where the trend points.HM Land Registry
Housing has no score: we show real sale prices and how they have moved instead. On the environment page, only air quality is scored; flood risk and green space are shown as they are.
Where the data comes from
We download official datasets from their publishers and load them into our own database. The full list, with update frequencies and coverage gaps, is on our data sources page.