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King's Lynn and West Norfolk

King's Lynn

Town · 47,550 residents

Affordability: 65/100Safety: 56/100Transport: 31/100Schools: 49/100Health: 58/100Food & drink: 54/100Environment: 68/100Infrastructure: 54/100Property market: 59/100
45Fair

Fair · among the lowest-scoring towns

Check Local Score out of 100 · 60 is typical for the country

Each arc is a topic, coloured by its score

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  • Flood risk: 56% of the area is in the highest flood zone, so check the street
  • Transport scores 31, below the typical 60
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The essentials

Everyday life

The area

Around King's Lynn

South Wootton51North Lynn38North Wootton46Gaywood36HighgateNorth End50St. Margaret's62The Green46South Lynn54St James' EndSetchey46Tilney All Saints46
See all 18 in the guide ↓
About King's Lynn ↓

Map outline: Official built-up area

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Is King's Lynn a good place to live?

King's Lynn scores 45/100 overall, which the scorecard rates as fair — 60 is typical for the country.

No topic reaches "very good" (70+); its best is environment (68).

It scores lowest on transport (31).

Scores come from official data on safety, schools, transport, prices, health, food & drink and the local environment, for King's Lynn in East of England, each measured against the national average.

Summary of King's Lynn›

Terraced Victorian streets run close to the town centre, with the market square and its old brick frontages giving way, within a few streets, to the kind of semi-detached estates that spread out towards the retail parks. It's a working market town rather than a commuter dormitory — you notice it in the mix of people: tradespeople, agricultural workers, families who've been here generations, alongside a smaller newer set drawn by the price of a house. It doesn't try to look pretty for visitors, and it mostly doesn't.

The practical picture is a town built around one rail line rather than a road network of choices: Kings Lynn Rail Station is the only station and effectively the only significant public transport spine, which is why the area's transport grade lags behind everything else on the scorecard. Schools follow a similar honest-average pattern — King's Lynn Academy and Gaywood Primary School are both rated Good, but the town's average Ofsted score sits close to the national norm rather than above it, and secondary progress scores (King Edward VII Academy and King's Lynn Academy both post negative Progress 8 figures) suggest outcomes lean below expectations once pupils get there, whatever the headline rating. Housing, meanwhile, is where the numbers genuinely work in the town's favour: a median price around £207,500 is comfortably below both the regional figure and the parent district average of King's Lynn and West Norfolk, and the market here is dominated by freehold terraces and semis rather than flats or leasehold flats — the kind of For Sale board that says "family house, no ground rent, no chain of leaseholders to negotiate with." Prices have been drifting up gently rather than sharply, and the longer-term direction is graded as improving rather than volatile.

Green space is genuinely abundant for a town this size — over a hundred separate spaces adding up to more than 120 hectares, so weekends have room to breathe even if you're not chasing a specific named park. Health provision and environment both score well against the national average, which tallies with a place that still feels like a proper town centre rather than a bypass with shops attached. The crime picture needs a level head: violence and sexual offences account for by far the largest share of recorded crime, more than four times the next biggest category, shoplifting — a pattern that's common in town centres with a concentrated retail and night-time footprint, and it sits alongside an overall safety grade that's respectable rather than alarming. It's the one number worth sitting with rather than skimming past.

Who tends to settle here is fairly legible from all this: people for whom house price and space matter more than transport choice, who don't need a fast multi-line commute, and who are comfortable with a school system that's solid rather than outstanding across the board — Whitefriars Church of England Primary Academy carries the Outstanding rating locally, and it's worth finding out where you'd sit relative to it. If your daily life radiates from the town itself rather than a train timetable, King's Lynn holds together well; if you need frequent, varied rail options, the single-line reality will grate faster than anything else on this list.

Data last updated: 19 October 2026

Explore around King's Lynn›

King's Lynn by topic

  • Safety in King's Lynn
  • Schools in King's Lynn
  • Transport in King's Lynn
  • Property market and prices in King's Lynn
  • Health, food & drink in King's Lynn
  • Environment in King's Lynn
  • Infrastructure in King's Lynn
  • People in King's Lynn

Areas within King's Lynn

  • South Wootton
  • North Lynn
  • North Wootton
  • Gaywood
  • Highgate
  • North End
  • St. Margaret's
  • The Green
  • South Lynn
  • St James' End

Areas near King's Lynn

  • Setchey
  • Tilney All Saints
  • Clenchwarton
  • Gayton
  • North Runcton
  • Watlington
  • Castle Rising
  • Hardwick

Postcodes in King's Lynn

  • PE30
  • PE34
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