Is Melbourne, Derbyshire a nice place to live?

Is Melbourne a nice place to live or is Melbourne a bit rough? For us there are a number of factors that make any town a nice place to live, like a low crime rate, low levels of deprivation, the good health of the residents, rent affordability and excellent wages. In this article we will see if Melbourne meets our criteria.

How likely are you to a victim of crime in Melbourne?

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Melbourne. They are a measure of how likely you are to be a victim of personal or material crime in an area, such as muggings or burglary. Naturally rural areas have less crime than urban areas, but for this part of our town assessment we've looked at the 9 wards nearest to the centre of Melbourne. To pass this section, 7 out of 9 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5

#	Ward	Crime Rank
1	Melbourne	26375
2	Worthington & Breedon	25757
3	Long Whatton & Diseworth	25249
4	Valley	25085
5	Castle Donington Central	24864
6	Castle Donington Park	22462
7	Chellaston	22224
8	Stenson	20089
9	Aston	18129

Is Melbourne a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Melbourne, you want to know if the place is likely to put you on a downward spiral of ill health. For this section of the town assessment, we've examined government health statistics from the 2021 Census General Health question and the Indices of Multiple Deprivation's health element.The table below shows what percentage of Melbourne residents answered saying their health was either bad or very bad. To pass this section, the local authority has to have a percentage score less than or equal to 7%.

Local Authority	%
Rushcliffe	3.87
South Derbyshire (Melbourne)	4.6
Erewash	5.66
Derby	5.8

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Melbourne. They measures the risk of premature death and the impairment of quality of life through poor physical or mental health, lovely! We've collated an average LSOA rank for 9 wards nearest to the centre of Melbourne. To pass this section, 7 out of 9 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5.

#	Ward	Health Rank
1	Aston (Best)	25215
2	Melbourne	24678
3	Long Whatton & Diseworth	24172
4	Worthington & Breedon	22134
5	Stenson	21687
6	Valley	20764
7	Castle Donington Central	20591
8	Castle Donington Park	18709
9	Chellaston	12667

Is Melbourne rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 9 wards in and around Melbourne. In layman's terms, this is how rough the ward is based on mutiple measures of deprivation including; employment, income, health, crime, housing and outside space. To pass this section as the town assessment, 7 out of 9 wards must have a ranking higher than the English average of 16422.5

#	Ward	Deprivation Rank
1	Melbourne	27081
2	Long Whatton & Diseworth	26818
3	Aston	25885
4	Castle Donington Central	24928
5	Stenson	21396
6	Chellaston	21057
7	Worthington & Breedon	20931
8	Castle Donington Park	19753
9	Valley	18752

How affordable are the rents in Melbourne?

Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These market rental statistics are dated September 2023. We have used the median rental figure for this assessment as we believe this is a more realistic figure than the average (mean) that can be skewed by artificially low and high rents. To pass this section, Melbourne rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for Derbyshire.

Beds	South Derbyshire	Derbyshire
1	£475	£450
2	£600	£575
3	£750	£650
4	£1154	£950

How much can I earn in Melbourne per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Melbourne, you'll want to know how much you can earn in a job in the town. Every year the government publishes statistics on gross weekly pay, these figures are for September 2023. To pass this section Melbourne's local authority needs to be in first or second place compared to the three nearest local authorities.

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Rushcliffe	£766.20
2	South Derbyshire (Melbourne)	£706.90
3	Erewash	£659.90
4	Derby UA	£641.80

So, is Melbourne a nice place to live?

Melbourne has passed our core town assesment with a score of 4/5.  However, the rents in Melbourne are more expensive than other parts of Derbyshire.

* Probably.