Is Sleaford, Lincolnshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Sleaford. 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 10 wards nearest to the centre of Sleaford. To pass this section, 8 out of 10 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5

#	Ward	Crime Rank
1	Leasingham and Rauceby	32535
2	Ashby de la Launde and Cranwell	32316
3	Sleaford Quarrington and Mareham	31573
4	Osbournby	31435
5	Heckington Rural	31167
6	Ruskington	30647
7	Sleaford Holdingham	26889
8	Sleaford Castle	22725
9	Sleaford Westholme	20730
10	Sleaford Navigation	18587

Is Sleaford a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Sleaford, 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 Sleaford 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	%
South Kesteven	4.76
North Kesteven (Sleaford)	4.85
South Holland	5.68
Boston	5.8

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Sleaford. 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 10 wards nearest to the centre of Sleaford. To pass this section, 8 out of 10 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5.

#	Ward	Health Rank
1	Sleaford Quarrington and Mareham (Best)	29121
2	Leasingham and Rauceby	27195
3	Heckington Rural	26537
4	Osbournby	26142
5	Ashby de la Launde and Cranwell	24469
6	Sleaford Holdingham	20884
7	Sleaford Castle	20505
8	Ruskington	19165
9	Sleaford Westholme	18860
10	Sleaford Navigation (Worst)	17215

Is Sleaford rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Sleaford. 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, 8 out of 10 wards must have a ranking higher than the English average of 16422.5

#	Ward	Deprivation Rank
1	Sleaford Quarrington and Mareham	29350
2	Leasingham and Rauceby	27341
3	Ashby de la Launde and Cranwell	23728
4	Heckington Rural	21497
5	Ruskington	21279
6	Sleaford Holdingham	18850
7	Sleaford Castle	17485
8	Osbournby	14901
9	Sleaford Westholme	13585
10	Sleaford Navigation	11463

How affordable are the rents in Sleaford?

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

Beds	North Kesteven	Lincolnshire
1	£470	£465
2	£587	£575
3	£710	£675
4	£970	£920

How much can I earn in Sleaford per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	South Kesteven	£658.50
2	North Kesteven (Sleaford)	£655.80
3	South Holland	£635.90
4	Boston	£582.40

So, is Sleaford a nice place to live?

Sleaford has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, Sleaford does more pockets of deprivation than the average town.  However, the rents in Sleaford are more expensive than other parts of Lincolnshire.

* Probably.