Methodology

By Norfolk Living Guide Team Apr 9, 2026 · Updated Oct 1, 2026

5 min read

This page sets out where the figures in our guides come from and how we use them. Each guide also ends with a short note naming its own sources and the period its figures cover.

House prices

Sale prices for towns and villages come from HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, the record of residential property sales in England and Wales. We use standard sales only, over the 12 months to a stated month (June 2026 in most current guides). Sales are grouped by the town or village named in the address, or by postcode sector for some suburbs, and each guide says which.

We quote the median and the number of sales behind it. The medians in the text are not rounded; the figures bar at the top of a guide rounds them to the nearest thousand. Many guides give the mean as well, because a few expensive houses can pull it well above the median. We do not quote asking prices from Rightmove or Zoopla, which change daily.

District and county figures come from the UK House Price Index, which HM Land Registry publishes every month. The index adjusts for the mix of homes sold, so it will not match a town median, and the guides say which figure is which.

Schools

School details come from Ofsted inspection reports and the Department for Education’s register of schools, Get Information about Schools, which gives each school’s age range, pupil numbers and academy trust. For admissions we also use Norfolk County Council’s Schoolfinder. Independent schools are covered from their Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) or Ofsted reports, whichever body inspects them, and from each school’s own fees page.

Ofsted inspections since September 2024 have not given schools a single overall grade. Since 10 November 2025 Ofsted has published report cards, which grade each area of a school separately on a five-point scale from exceptional to urgent improvement, and record whether safeguarding is met. Where a school has not been inspected under report cards, the guide gives its most recent grades and the inspection date. Our Norfolk schools guide explains both systems.

Each guide covers the schools that serve that place, usually the nearest primaries and the secondary most children go on to, not every school in the district. We report what the inspectors found and do not grade schools ourselves.

Council tax

Council tax figures are each district council’s published charges for 2026-27: Breckland, Broadland, Great Yarmouth, King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, North Norfolk, Norwich City and South Norfolk. We quote Band D, the usual point of comparison. The bill includes the Norfolk County Council and police shares and, where there is one, the town or parish council’s, which is why two addresses in the same district can pay different amounts.

Broadband and mobile signal

Broadband figures come from thinkbroadband‘s coverage data for each district: the share of premises that can get superfast broadband (30Mbps or more) and full fibre. A few pages, including our mobile signal guide, also use Ofcom’s Connected Nations data. These are district figures. We do not use address-level checker data, so check the exact address on Ofcom’s broadband and mobile checkers before you buy.

Buses, trains and driving

Bus times come from the operators’ timetables as published on bustimes.org, and many guides give the date we checked them. Train times come from the operators’ published timetables (Greater Anglia, Great Northern and East Midlands Railway) or from journey planners such as National Rail and Trainline. Drive times are typical times on the main roads. We have not measured them, and they will be longer at rush hour.

Population

Population figures are from the 2021 Census, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). For a town we use either the civil parish count or the ONS built-up area count, and the guide says which, because the two boundaries can give quite different totals. A few guides also use Census tables from the ONS Nomis service, and rents come from the ONS private rent figures for each district.

Crime

Where a guide gives crime figures, they come from police.uk street-level data or from the ONS tables of police recorded crime by district. Our safest places ranking counts police.uk street-level crimes inside each parish boundary over 12 months and divides by the parish population at the 2021 Census, giving a rate per 1,000 residents. Anti-social behaviour reports are counted separately. A rate lets a large town be compared with a small village; a raw total would not.

Flooding and the coast

Pages that cover flooding use the Environment Agency flood maps on GOV.UK and say where a place has land in Flood Zones 2 or 3. Pages on the coast use the Shoreline Management Plans, which set out whether each stretch of coast is to be defended. Guides that do not mention flooding have not assessed it, so check any address on the GOV.UK flood risk service before you buy. Our Norfolk flood risk guide explains the zones.

Other sources

Some guides draw on other official sources, and name them: NHS trusts for hospital services, the Bank of England for interest rates, and GOV.UK and HMRC for stamp duty, grants and school transport rules. Where we cannot find a primary source for something, we leave it out.

Who writes the guides

Norfolk Living Guide is edited in Norfolk. Contributor bylines may be pseudonyms, as our privacy page explains.

How often we update

Our area guides are updated quarterly. Each one states the period its figures cover, and many give the date their sources were checked.

If something looks out of date or wrong, please get in touch. We will check it against the source and correct the page.

Editorial independence

Norfolk Living Guide is editorially independent. We sell sponsored placements; any paid placement is labelled, and sponsorship does not change what a guide says. Pages may carry affiliate links in future, and if they do the links will be marked. The full policy is on our affiliate disclosure page.

Last reviewed: September 2026.