Cefn-coed-y-cymmer in Wales has a Check Local Score of 60/100 (good), drawn from official data on safety, schools, transport, housing, amenities and the local environment, each measured against the national average — a score of 60 is typical for the country.
Cefn-coed-y-cymmer sits on the edge of Merthyr Tydfil, the kind of place where terraced stone rows give way quickly to the hills, and the Brecon Beacons feel like a continuation of the street rather than a drive away. It's small and quiet by nature — this isn't a place with a bustling parade of shops, more a village-suburb where you'd recognise your neighbours and the postman.
For families, the local option is Coed Y Dderwen Primary School, a community school with a couple of hundred pupils on the roll — the kind of size where a child isn't a number. There's no rail station listed for the area itself, so this is a driving village rather than a commuter one, and the median age of 36 suggests it draws younger households and families more than retirees. Housing here is dominated by freehold terraces, with the odd semi and detached thrown in — the sort of stock where a for-sale board usually means a solid stone-built house rather than a new estate. Prices run below the Welsh average: a median around £202,500 against a national figure of £208,000, and notably cheaper than Merthyr Tydfil county as a whole would suggest given how this compares against the wider borough's typical price. Council tax at band D sits close to the national norm, so there's no nasty surprise there.
Green space is really the point of living here — the Beacons foothills do the work that a park would elsewhere, and with population density far below the Welsh average, gardens and breathing room come easier than in the valleys towns proper. It's not a place with a restaurant scene to speak of; day-to-day life leans on Merthyr Tydfil itself for shopping, eating out, and bigger healthcare needs, with the village functioning as the quiet end of that wider town. On the numbers, this is among the less affluent areas of Wales by income, though the environment grade is the highest mark in the picture — a clue that what you're paying for here is the landscape, not the amenities.
The safety picture needs a level head. The crime count is low in absolute terms — thirteen incidents logged, dominated by violence and sexual offences and some anti-social behaviour — but because the population itself is so small, the rate reads high against the county average. In a village of well under two hundred people, a handful of incidents swings the statistics hard; it's worth reading as noise from a small base rather than a lived sense of danger, and it sits alongside solid marks everywhere else — connectivity, affordability, housing all come out comfortably above the Welsh average.
This suits someone who wants proximity to the hills more than a high street, who doesn't need a train line on the doorstep, and who's comfortable with a small, tight community where the numbers can look dramatic precisely because there are so few of them to move the average.
Data last updated: 15 August 2026
Pick another area to line them up side by side — the verdict, both Check Local Scores, and what actually separates them.