My Area UK

Birkenhead

Birkenhead is a town in Merseyside, England, with a population of around 325,264. It has around 1 school, 2 GP surgeries, 4 pharmacies, 1 supermarket, 1 park and green, and around 23 restaurants and cafés, with 47 bus stops and Birkenhead Park railway station 1.7 km away. The average sold house price is around £150,720, and there were around 483 recorded street crimes in June 2026, most commonly violence & sexual offences. This page gathers weather, crime, food hygiene, transport, flood risk, house prices, population, deprivation and your local MP for the Birkenhead area — all from official UK open data.

On deprivation, the Wirral area is more deprived than the average in England (IoD2025). The wider council area has around 320,199 residents at roughly 1,990 people per km².

Council
Wirral
County
Merseyside
Constituency
Birkenhead
Police force
Merseyside
41/ 100

My Area Score

Mixed

Ranked 209th of 294 English council areas — better than 29% of them.

Low crime50
Home affordability82
Affordable rents76
Good schools12
Life expectancy18
Low deprivation36
Employment41
Low council tax32

A percentile blend of eight open measures (100 = best in England); bars show this area’s England-wide percentile on each. See the rankings · methodology

Weather

9°CPatchy rain nearby

  • Today: 11° / 7° · 40% rain
  • Tomorrow: 11° / 7° · Overcast

Source: WeatherAPI

Daylight

Sunrise 07:18Sunset 16:32

9h 14m of daylight today

Next bank holiday: Christmas Day, Fri 25 Dec

Source: sunrise-sunset.org · gov.uk

Air quality

21US AQI · Good

Main pollutant: ozone

Source: WAQI · Wirral Tranmere, United Kingdom

Air pollution (PM2.5)

  • 5.9 µg/m³ average fine-particle (PM2.5) concentration
  • 4.5% of adult (30+) deaths estimated attributable to fine-particle pollution

Lower is better for both figures.

Source: OHID Fingertips · 2024

Crime

413 reported · August 2026▼ 23% YoY

  • Violence & sexual offences132
  • Shoplifting75
  • Anti-social behaviour57
  • Public order39

134 stop & searches · mostly controlled drugs

Neighbourhood team: Birkenhead and Tranmere · Merseyside

Local policing priorities

  • Youth anti-social behaviour, street drinking, retail crime, vehicle crime and begging have been identified as key neighbourhood prioritie…

Source: data.police.uk (within ~1 mile)

Road safety

343 reported road collisions (2025)

81 killed or seriously injured · 419 casualties · 10.7 collisions per 10,000 residents

Source: DfT reported road collisions (STATS19)

Food hygiene

500+ food businesses within 2 miles

  • 369 rated 4–5 ★ (295 top)
  • 27 rated 0–2 (poor)

Source: Food Standards Agency · split of the nearest 500

Flood risk

No active flood warnings nearby.

Buses & trains

  • Nearest station: Hamilton Square (0.1 km)
  • 69 bus stops within ~½ mile

Live trains from Birkenhead Hamilton Square (0.2 km):

Loading live departures…

Source: OpenStreetMap, National Rail

House prices

£221,673 average▲ 5.8% YoY

Across Wirral · to 2026-08

Detached£395,663
Semi-detached£252,118
Terraced£176,914
Flat£125,172

Source: UK House Price Index (HM Land Registry)

Private rents

£859 average monthly rent▲ 7% YoY

  • 1 bed £572
  • 2 bed £740
  • 3 bed £905

Source: ONS Price Index of Private Rents · to 2026-08

Affordability

6.1× house price to earnings

A typical home costs 6.1 times median annual pay (6.1× for cheaper homes vs lower pay).

Source: ONS house price to workplace earnings ratio · 2025

Property sales

4,300 property sales in the last 12 months

12 months to May 2026

A busier or quieter market is not by itself good or bad. Monthly counts are small and volatile, so only the annual total is shown.

Source: HM Land Registry UK HPI, 12 months to 2026-05

Fuel prices

  • Cheapest petrol: 155.9p · Esso (5.3 km)
  • Cheapest diesel: 144.8p · AppleGreen (2.9 km)

23 stations within ~8 miles

Source: CMA fuel price scheme

EV charging

150 charging locations within ~8 km

  • 8 with rapid charging (50 kW+)
  • Fastest nearby: 150 kW
  • Nearest: Elgin Way Car Park (0.2 km)

Source: Open Charge Map

Sport & leisure

  • Gyms1
  • Swimming pools1
  • Sports pitches12
  • Playgrounds5

Source: OpenStreetMap (within ~1 mile)

Population

320,199 residents in Wirral · 1,990/km²

  • Under 16: 18%
  • 16–64: 60%
  • 65+: 22%

Source: ONS Census 2021 (local authority)

Internal migration

  • Moves in from elsewhere in the UK11,405
  • Moves out to elsewhere in the UK9,533
  • Net moves+1,872

Residential moves between local authorities (counts of moves, not people) · ONS Internal migration, YE Jun 2025

Deprivation

More deprived than the average in England

Ranked 106 of 296 English local authorities (1 = most deprived)

23% of neighbourhoods are in England’s most deprived 10%

Source: English Indices of Deprivation 2025

Council tax

£2,501 a year · Band D, 2026-27

Most homes here are Band A (40% of 152,090)

A £1,667
B £1,945
C £2,223
D £2,501
E £3,056
F £3,612
G £4,168
H £5,001

Source: VOA council-tax stock · MHCLG band levels 2026-27

Schools

136 schools · 50,451 pupils

90 primary · 19 secondary · 27 other

Ofsted: 49 of 63 graded schools rated Good or Outstanding (78%)

125 inspected under Ofsted’s 2024+ framework (graded by area, no single overall grade)

Secondary schools:

  • Upton Hall School FCJOutstanding
  • Wirral Grammar School for GirlsOutstanding
  • Co-op Academy BebingtonGood
  • Ridgeway High SchoolGood
  • South Wirral High SchoolGood
  • St John Plessington Catholic CollegeGood
  • Weatherhead High SchoolGood
  • West Kirby Grammar SchoolGood
  • Wirral Grammar School for BoysGood
  • Birkenhead Park SchoolRequires improvement
  • St Mary's Catholic College, A Voluntary AcademyRequires improvement
  • The Mosslands SchoolRequires improvement
  • Calday Grange Grammar School
  • Co-op Academy Oldershaw
  • Hilbre High School
  • Pensby High School
  • Prenton High School for Girls
  • St Anselm's College
  • Woodchurch High School

Source: DfE Get Information about Schools · Ofsted · Wirral

Care & health services

325 CQC-registered services

  • Care homes113
  • GP practices65
  • Dentists67
  • Homecare agencies51
  • Hospitals & hospices7

CQC ratings: 88% of rated services Good or Outstanding · 8 Inadequate

Source: Care Quality Commission · Wirral

Heritage & planning

  • In a conservation area (Hamilton Square Conservation Area)
  • Not in the Green Belt
  • 142 listed buildings within ~1.5 km

Source: planning.data.gov.uk (England)

Planning decisions

225 applications decided

89.3% granted · 201 granted, 24 refused

Source: MHCLG planning statistics (PS2) · 2026 Q2

Your MP

Alison McGovern

Labour

Birkenhead

Recent votes:

  • AyeBudget Resolution No. 86: High value council tax surcharge
  • AyeBudget Resolution No. 76: Rates of alcohol duty
  • AyeBudget Resolution No. 55: Value added tax (electric vehicle charging)
  • AyeBudget Resolution No. 15: Charges in connection with employment visas

Source: UK Parliament

Council control

Labour (minority)

  • Lab 26
  • Con 14
  • LD 6
  • Grn 14
  • Ref 3
  • Oth 3

Source: Open Council Data UK (CC BY-SA)

Amenities nearby

  • Schools6
  • GPs & clinics2
  • Pharmacies3
  • Supermarkets5
  • Parks & greens25
  • Restaurants & cafés54

Source: OpenStreetMap (within ~1 mile)

Local businesses

10,525 active business enterprises in the area

Source: ONS UK Business Counts (2026)

Jobs

478 jobs advertised · £38,095 avg

e.g. Conveyancing Fee Earner, Paint Inspection Engineer, Marketing & Lead Generation Manager

Source: Adzuna

Local economy

£728 median full-time weekly pay

3.6% of residents aged 16–64 claim unemployment-related benefits

£23,294 disposable income per head (2024)

Source: ONS / Nomis (claimant count · ASHE) · ONS regional GDHI

Energy efficiency

37% of homes rated EPC C or above

Most common band: D · 161,783 certificates

12.6% of households were in fuel poverty (2023)

Source: MHCLG EPC statistics · DESNZ sub-regional fuel poverty

Grid electricity

80% low-carbon electricity

Wind 54% · Nuclear 27% · Gas 17% · Imports 3%

66 gCO₂/kWh · low intensity

Latest estimate for North Wales & Merseyside · National Grid ESO

Health

Life expectancy: 82.3 yrs women · 78.5 yrs men

Healthy life expectancy: 60.1 women · 59.1 men

72% of adults overweight or obese

Source: OHID Fingertips · 2025

Wellbeing

  • Life satisfaction7.3
  • Feeling worthwhile7.6
  • Happiness yesterday7.3
  • Anxiety yesterday (lower is better)3.3

Average rating out of 10 · ONS personal well-being 2022-23

Health services

12 GP surgeries · 8 pharmacies in CH41

  • Cavendish Medical Centre
  • Whetstone Lane Med Ctr
  • Hamilton Med Ctr

Source: NHS Organisation Data Service

Local petitions

Open UK Parliament petitions most signed in Birkenhead:

Source: petition.parliament.uk · as of 2026-10-05

Notable places nearby

  • Birkenhead War Memorial · 0.0 km

    Birkenhead War Memorial, or Birkenhead Cenotaph, stands in Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, Merseyside, England, opposite the Town Hall. It consists of a cenotaph in Portland stone with carved figures and panels in Westmo…

  • Birkenhead · 0.1 km

    Birkenhead is an industrial port town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liverpool. It lies within the hi…

  • Queen Victoria Monument, Birkenhead · 0.1 km

    The Queen Victoria Monument stands in the centre of Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside, England. It is in the form of an Eleanor cross. The memorial was designed by Edmund Kirby, and was unveiled in 1905.…

  • Hamilton Square · 0.1 km

    Hamilton Square is a town square in Birkenhead, Wirral, England. The Georgian square, which was designed by Edinburgh architect James Gillespie Graham, has the most Grade I listed buildings outside London. It is named…

  • Statue of John Laird · 0.1 km

    The Statue of John Laird stands on the west side of Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. It commemorates the life of John Laird, a local ship builder, politician and benefactor. The statue was sculpted by…

  • Birkenhead Hamilton Square railway station · 0.2 km

    Birkenhead Hamilton Square railway station serves the town of Birkenhead, in Merseyside, England, on the Wirral Line of the Merseyrail network. The station is close to Hamilton Square in Birkenhead.

Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA)

Frequently asked questions

Where is Birkenhead?
Birkenhead is a town in Merseyside, England, in the Wirral local authority.
What is the population of Birkenhead?
Birkenhead has an approximate settlement population of 325,264.
How deprived is Birkenhead?
The Wirral local authority, which includes Birkenhead, is more deprived than the average in England on the IoD2025.