Is Southam, Warwickshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Southam. 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 Southam. 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	Kineton	28850
2	Leam Valley	28201
3	Radford Semele	26760
4	Harbury	25447
5	Napton & Fenny Compton	24494
6	Southam North	21839
7	Southam South	21708
8	Dunsmore	21287
9	Long Itchington & Stockton	21145
10	Whitnash	20168

Is Southam a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Southam, 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 Southam 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	%
Warwick	3.79
Stratford-on-Avon (Southam)	4.06
Coventry	5.36

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Southam. 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 Southam. 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	Leam Valley (Best)	29612
2	Harbury	25445
3	Kineton	25443
4	Southam South	25243
5	Dunsmore	25193
6	Napton & Fenny Compton	25054
7	Southam North	24924
8	Radford Semele	23580
9	Whitnash	22516
10	Long Itchington & Stockton (Worst)	20333

Is Southam rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Southam. 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	Dunsmore	27287
2	Whitnash	26583
3	Radford Semele	25923
4	Southam North	25489
5	Southam South	24812
6	Leam Valley	23495
7	Long Itchington & Stockton	23240
8	Harbury	22553
9	Napton & Fenny Compton	22128
10	Kineton	20682

How affordable are the rents in Southam?

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

Beds	Stratford-on-Avon	Warwickshire
1	£650	£625
2	£760	£750
3	£975	£850
4	£1395	£1285

How much can I earn in Southam per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Warwick	£797.30
2	Stratford-on-Avon (Southam)	£725.40
3	Coventry	£698.80

So, is Southam a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.