Is Halifax, Yorkshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Halifax. 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 Halifax. 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	Luddendenfoot	11774
2	Northowram and Shelf	11036
3	Sowerby Bridge	9134
4	Skircoat	7636
5	Queensbury	7025
6	Town	6583
7	Warley	5976
8	Park	4563
9	Clayton and Fairweather Green	2916
10	Ovenden	1511

Is Halifax a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Halifax, 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 Halifax 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	%
Leeds	5.01
Kirklees	5.55
Calderdale (Halifax)	5.68
Bradford	5.95

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Halifax. 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 Halifax. 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	Luddendenfoot (Best)	17640
2	Northowram and Shelf	16940
3	Warley	14209
4	Skircoat	13629
5	Sowerby Bridge	12945
6	Queensbury	9703
7	Town	8312
8	Clayton and Fairweather Green	7214
9	Park	5990
10	Ovenden (Worst)	4393

Is Halifax rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Halifax. 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	Northowram and Shelf	19212
2	Luddendenfoot	16271
3	Skircoat	13400
4	Queensbury	12377
5	Warley	12104
6	Sowerby Bridge	11624
7	Clayton and Fairweather Green	7854
8	Town	7633
9	Ovenden	3610
10	Park	2983

How affordable are the rents in Halifax?

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

Beds	Calderdale	West Yorkshire
1	£425	£500
2	£500	£575
3	£600	£650
4	£850	£1100

How much can I earn in Halifax per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Leeds	£662.90
2	Calderdale (Halifax)	£621.50
3	Bradford	£612.50
4	Kirklees	£612.00

So, is Halifax a nice place to live?

* Probably.