Best places to live in Gloucestershire: house prices and data by area

Cotswold is the dearest at £425,000 and Gloucester the cheapest at £255,000: the same budget buys 1.7 times as much home by price at one end of Gloucestershire as at the other.

The marker on each bar is the middle asking price of the new homes for sale there today. In 6 of the 6 council areas with enough new homes to compare, new homes are asking more than the homes sold around them: a new home is often larger or a different kind, so the gap is not the new-build premium on its own.

201 new homes are for sale across Gloucestershire today. Tewkesbury has the most (89), then Cheltenham (39).

Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. It runs from £288 in Forest of Dean to £407 in Cotswold.

Sales for every thousand households show how often homes change hands, which is how much choice a buyer has in a year. Tewkesbury is the busiest (32) and Forest of Dean the quietest (24), around a middle of 27.

A busy market is a sign of both supply and demand: more homes are coming up, and more buyers are competing for them.

In Tewkesbury, 4% of the homes sold in the last twelve months were sold new, the highest share in Gloucestershire; in Gloucester it was 0%. New sales reach the register later than resales, so the latest months undercount them.

Sold prices were flat in the middle council area of Gloucestershire over the last year. Stroud moved most (up 3.1%) and Cotswold least (down 5.0%).

The mix of homes sold changes from year to year, so a single council area can swing for that reason alone; read the pattern across the areas more than any one bar.

Over three years the middle council area's sold prices fell 2.3%, led by Cheltenham (up 4.5%).

Over three years dearer and cheaper council areas of Gloucestershire have grown at much the same pace, so the gaps between them have held.

There is no clear pattern between distance to Bristol and growth over three years: places close in and far out have moved alike.

Unusually, council areas further from Bristol sell for more per square foot: about £43 more for every ten miles out, a clear pattern.

Unusually, council areas further from Bristol have clearly fewer workers driving to work.

Council areas with more schools judged good or better are clearly dearer: every ten points more goes with about £64,000 on the middle sold price. The schools do not cause all of that; both follow the same households.

A council area is large: the school a home is offered depends on its own address, so check the schools around a development before relying on this.

Attainment 8 is a pupil's score across eight GCSE subjects. The secondary schools of Gloucester average the highest in Gloucestershire (54.9) and those of Forest of Dean the lowest (42.7).

Results do not follow distance to Bristol: there is no trade here between results and a short journey in.

Density says what kind of place an area is: how close the homes, shops, schools and stations sit. Gloucester is the most built up (3,266 people per square kilometre) and Cotswold the least (78).

Older council areas in Gloucestershire are loosely better off. Areas above the line earn more than their age alone would suggest.

Areas towards the top right have the most children and the largest households: Gloucester, Tewkesbury and Stroud lead for residents under fifteen. Towards the bottom left are the areas with more single people and couples.

In the middle council area of Gloucestershire, 16% of households rent privately. The share renting has little to do with price here.

Cheltenham, Gloucester and Tewkesbury have the highest walk scores in Gloucestershire. Denser areas are clearly more walkable, because more is close by; an area above the line is easier on foot than its density alone would suggest.

Another way to see how easy it is to get about is how many households manage without a car. In Gloucester, 20% have none, the most in Gloucestershire. Areas towards the bottom right are where daily life depends least on driving.

A band D home pays £2,491 a year in Stroud, the most in Gloucestershire, and £2,341 in Tewkesbury, the least: a difference of £151 every year for the same band.

A new home is banded when it is finished, so ask the builder which band each plot is expected to fall in.

Police recorded 39 crimes for every thousand residents in Gloucester over the last year held, and 16 in Forest of Dean. City centres record more because of the people who visit them, not only those who live there, and a council area's figure hides wide differences between its streets.