Is Gornal, West Midlands a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Gornal. 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 Gornal. 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	Sedgley	19765
2	Gornal	19341
3	Spring Vale	15729
4	Coseley East	14856
5	Upper Gornal and Woodsetton	14760
6	St James's	14148
7	Brockmoor and Pensnett	13455
8	Castle and Priory	13025
9	Himley and Swindon	11491
10	St Thomas's	10983

Is Gornal a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Gornal, 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 Gornal 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 Staffordshire	5.31
Dudley (Gornal)	6.07
Wolverhampton	6.34
Sandwell	6.64

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Gornal. 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 Gornal. 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	Himley and Swindon (Best)	18752
2	Sedgley	14865
3	Gornal	13963
4	Coseley East	10960
5	Upper Gornal and Woodsetton	10647
6	Spring Vale	9583
7	St James's	8768
8	Brockmoor and Pensnett	7051
9	Castle and Priory	6775
10	St Thomas's (Worst)	6375

Is Gornal rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Gornal. 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	Sedgley	18736
2	Gornal	16878
3	Himley and Swindon	16715
4	Coseley East	11807
5	Upper Gornal and Woodsetton	11734
6	St James's	10976
7	Spring Vale	10443
8	Castle and Priory	8096
9	Brockmoor and Pensnett	7618
10	St Thomas's	4588

How affordable are the rents in Gornal?

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, Gornal rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for West Midlands.

Beds	Dudley	West Midlands
1	£495	£595
2	£600	£675
3	£725	£775
4	£998	£1100

How much can I earn in Gornal per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	South Staffordshire	£725.00
2	Dudley (Gornal)	£622.90
3	Sandwell	£613.30
4	Wolverhampton	£613.00

So, is Gornal a nice place to live?

* Probably.