Is Alford, Lincolnshire a nice place to live?

Is Alford a nice place to live or is Alford 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 Alford meets our criteria.

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Alford. 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 Alford. 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	Withern & Theddlethorpe	27894
2	Sutton on Sea	25364
3	Alford	25125
4	Willoughby with Sloothby	25112
5	Burgh le Marsh	24409
6	Spilsby	22299
7	Chapel St Leonards	17739
8	Mablethorpe	13820
9	Ingoldmells	511

Is Alford a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Alford, 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 Alford 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	%
North Kesteven	4.85
Boston	5.8
North East Lincolnshire	6.5
East Lindsey (Alford)	8.16

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Alford. 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 Alford. 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	Withern & Theddlethorpe (Best)	12829
2	Willoughby with Sloothby	12553
3	Alford	10581
4	Spilsby	9493
5	Burgh le Marsh	5758
6	Sutton on Sea	3971
7	Ingoldmells	2979
8	Chapel St Leonards	2251
9	Mablethorpe	1289

Is Alford rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 9 wards in and around Alford. 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	Burgh le Marsh	11634
2	Spilsby	11184
3	Alford	9121
4	Willoughby with Sloothby	7938
5	Withern & Theddlethorpe	7369
6	Sutton on Sea	5106
7	Chapel St Leonards	3107
8	Ingoldmells	1829
9	Mablethorpe	1619

How affordable are the rents in Alford?

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, Alford rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for Lincolnshire.

Beds	East Lindsey	Lincolnshire
1	£400	£465
2	£500	£575
3	£619	£675
4	£800	£920

How much can I earn in Alford per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Alford, 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 Alford's local authority needs to be in first or second place compared to the three nearest local authorities.

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	North East Lincolnshire UA	£663.40
2	North Kesteven	£655.80
3	Boston	£582.40
4	East Lindsey (Alford)	£574.90

So, is Alford a nice place to live?

* Probably.