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English Town Rankings in 1662
Rank	Town
1	Norwich
2	York
3	Bristol
4	Newcastle
5	Exeter
6	Ipswich
7	Great Yarmouth
8	Oxford
9	Cambridge
10	Canterbury
11	Worcester
12	Deptford
13	Shrewsbury
14	Salisbury
15	Colchester
16	East Greenwich
17	Hull
18	Coventry
19	Chester
20	Plymouth
21	Portsmouth
22	King's Lynn
23	Rochester
24	Lincoln
25	Dover
26	Nottingham
27	Gloucester
28	Bury St Edmunds
29	Winchester
30	Sandwich
31	Maidstone
32	Leeds
33	Leicester
34	Northampton
35	Chatham
36	Ely
37	Chichester
38	Gateshead
39	Southampton
40	Derby
41	Ludlow
42	Warwick

Note:

This table is based upon the figures of Mr. C.A. Meekings, of the Public Record Office. According to Hoskins, "The figures relate to taxable hearths only but are all comparable with each other. They also relate to administrative areas. A number of places included a country district which might be of considerable size, such as York or Shrewsbury. A number of other places had liberties and precincts within their built-up area which lay under the jurisdiction of surrounding hundreds. If these adjustments are made, some changes in ranking follow: thus York becomes 3rd, Canterbury 8th, Chester 16th, and so on. But the exact placing of his [or her] town is again a matter for the local historian, who will know what to include and what to exclude. It ought to be said, too, that the local historian who is working on one town must examine all the surviving hearth tax assessments for his [or her] chosen place, above all those that include the names of those who were exempt for one reason or another. Only in this way will he [or she] get a complete picture of his town. In my experience the assessments for 1670 and 1674, where they survive, are among the most valuable of all."