Is Birtley, Tyne and Wear a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Birtley. 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 Birtley. 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	North Lodge	22916
2	Washington South	22077
3	Washington West	19464
4	Washington Central	18744
5	Chester-le-Street North	16370
6	Low Fell	13840
7	Birtley	11839
8	Lamesley	11714
9	Pelton	11036
10	Chowdene	10389

Is Birtley a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Birtley, 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 Birtley 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	%
Newcastle upon Tyne	6.33
Gateshead (Birtley)	7.37
South Tyneside	7.66
Sunderland	8

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Birtley. 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 Birtley. 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	North Lodge (Best)	16340
2	Low Fell	14232
3	Washington South	11460
4	Chester-le-Street North	11183
5	Pelton	9694
6	Washington Central	8988
7	Washington West	8270
8	Birtley	6350
9	Lamesley	5582
10	Chowdene (Worst)	5382

Is Birtley rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Birtley. 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	North Lodge	26141
2	Low Fell	22251
3	Chester-le-Street North	18248
4	Washington South	16939
5	Pelton	14908
6	Washington West	14864
7	Washington Central	13808
8	Chowdene	10911
9	Birtley	10474
10	Lamesley	8595

How affordable are the rents in Birtley?

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, Birtley rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for Tyne and Wear.

Beds	Gateshead	Tyne and Wear
1	£450	£480
2	£513	£550
3	£595	£639
4	£795	£1250

How much can I earn in Birtley per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Newcastle upon Tyne	£635.00
2	Gateshead (Birtley)	£605.10
3	South Tyneside	£600.00
4	Sunderland	£582.40

So, is Birtley a nice place to live?

* Probably.