Is Kirkby, Merseyside a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Kirkby. 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 Kirkby. 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	Bickerstaffe	26460
2	Park	24759
3	Sudell	23768
4	Molyneux	18680
5	Shevington	15729
6	Prescot North	13939
7	Croxteth	13235
8	Whitefield	12009
9	Fazakerley	10542
10	Cherryfield	8975

Is Kirkby a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Kirkby, 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 Kirkby 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	%
West Lancashire	5.66
Sefton	7.01
St. Helens	7.51
Knowsley (Kirkby)	8.62

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Kirkby. 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 Kirkby. 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	Bickerstaffe (Best)	23032
2	Sudell	11700
3	Park	11673
4	Molyneux	9694
5	Croxteth	3904
6	Prescot North	2768
7	Shevington	2578
8	Fazakerley	2368
9	Whitefield	1633
10	Cherryfield (Worst)	1185

Is Kirkby rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Kirkby. 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	Bickerstaffe	23284
2	Park	21785
3	Sudell	20730
4	Molyneux	17409
5	Croxteth	8853
6	Prescot North	6735
7	Shevington	6304
8	Fazakerley	5192
9	Whitefield	3862
10	Cherryfield	1981

How affordable are the rents in Kirkby?

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

Beds	Knowsley	Merseyside
1	£450	£450
2	£550	£550
3	£708	£660
4	£885	£908

How much can I earn in Kirkby per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	West Lancashire	£689.90
2	Knowsley (Kirkby)	£670.10
3	St. Helens	£662.60
4	Sefton	£646.00

So, is Kirkby a nice place to live?

* Probably.