Provisional (methodology v1.0). Weights and measures may change as more data is added.
Separate leagues. England, Scotland and Wales are measured differently, so a rank in one is not comparable with another. Why. England is stable; Scotland and Wales are provisional.
Council rankings for Wales
21 councils in Wales ranked on service quality (60%) and value for money (20%) and financial health (20%), from official open data. How these rankings work.
Read this first
- Financial health uses unaudited 2023-24 accounts, the latest Audit Wales has published for every council, so it is about two years older than the rest. Blaenau Gwent and Merthyr Tydfil had not filed 2023-24 accounts, so their 2022-23 figures are used. Reserves include schools' balances, and borrowing includes borrowing for council housing and investment.
- Denbighshire is not ranked. It has returned no planning data to the Welsh Government since early 2024-25.
- There are no children's services or special educational needs measures. Adult social care is measured by reablement outcomes and how quickly safeguarding enquiries are completed; these are official statistics in development.
- Ombudsman complaint counts are small, so complaints carry half the weight of other services.
| Rank overall | Council | Band | Likely range | Service quality | Value for money | Financial health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Newport | Top quarter | 1st to 5th | 6 | 11 | 3 |
| 2 | Pembrokeshire | Top quarter | 1st to 5th | 4 | 10 | 4 |
| 3 | Rhondda Cynon Taf | Top quarter | 1st to 6th | 2 | 19 | 2 |
| 4 | Vale of Glamorgan | Top quarter | 2nd to 7th | 5 | 9 | 7 |
| 5 | Neath Port Talbot | Top quarter | 4th to 8th | 1 | 16 | 14 |
| 6 | Monmouthshire | Upper middle | 3rd to 10th | 3 | 5 | 19 |
| 7 | Isle of Anglesey | Upper middle | 3rd to 10th | 7 | 13 | 11 |
| 8 | Carmarthenshire | Upper middle | 6th to 10th | 10 | 12 | 9 |
| 9 | Blaenau Gwent | Upper middle | 3rd to 14th | 9 | 14 | 13 |
| 10 | Cardiff | Upper middle | 5th to 15th | 8 | 6 | 18 |
| 11 | Swansea | Lower middle | 10th to 14th | 12 | 7 | 16 |
| 12 | Bridgend | Lower middle | 7th to 17th | 16 | 4 | 5 |
| 13 | Merthyr Tydfil | Lower middle | 10th to 17th | 13 | 15 | 12 |
| 14 | Torfaen | Lower middle | 9th to 17th | 18 | 1 | 10 |
| 15 | Ceredigion | Lower middle | 12th to 17th | 14 | 20 | 6 |
| 16 | Caerphilly | Bottom quarter | 11th to 19th | 19 | 2 | 8 |
| 17 | Conwy | Bottom quarter | 14th to 20th | 17 | 8 | 17 |
| 18 | Wrexham | Bottom quarter | 12th to 21st | 11 | 21 | 21 |
| 19 | Powys | Bottom quarter | 15th to 20th | 15 | 17 | 15 |
| 20 | Flintshire | Bottom quarter | 17th to 21st | 20 | 3 | 20 |
| 21 | Gwynedd | Bottom quarter | 18th to 21st | 21 | 18 | 1 |
Pillar columns show each council's rank out of 21, 1 = best. Rank positions in the middle of the table are sensitive to weighting, so the bands and likely ranges are the more reliable guide.
Not ranked
- Denbighshire: Denbighshire has returned no planning data to the Welsh Government since early 2024-25; held back from the ranking until it reports
How sensitive is this ranking?
Each row re-ranks every council with one reasonable change to the method. A correlation near 1 and small moves mean the order is stable.
| Change | Rank correlation | Median move | Largest move |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pillars 50/25/25 | 0.987 | 1 | 2 |
| Pillars 70/15/15 | 0.979 | 0 | 3 |
| Pillars equal thirds | 0.822 | 2 | 9 |
| Equal weight for every service | 0.974 | 1 | 4 |
| No temporary accommodation | 0.987 | 1 | 3 |
| No cap on outliers | 0.995 | 0 | 1 |