Is Wakefield, Yorkshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Wakefield. 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 Wakefield. 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	Wrenthorpe and Outwood West	16577
2	Stanley and Outwood East	16204
3	Horbury and South Ossett	15902
4	Ardsley & Robin Hood	12209
5	Featherstone	10900
6	Wakefield South	10679
7	Normanton	8228
8	Wakefield North	7080
9	Wakefield East	6468
10	Wakefield West	6390

Is Wakefield a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Wakefield, 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 Wakefield 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
Bradford	5.95
Wakefield (Wakefield)	6.55

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Wakefield. 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 Wakefield. 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	Wakefield South (Best)	14572
2	Ardsley & Robin Hood	13707
3	Wrenthorpe and Outwood West	13504
4	Stanley and Outwood East	12981
5	Horbury and South Ossett	12516
6	Normanton	9556
7	Wakefield North	8918
8	Wakefield West	8326
9	Featherstone	8022
10	Wakefield East (Worst)	7157

Is Wakefield rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Wakefield. 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	Stanley and Outwood East	20073
2	Wrenthorpe and Outwood West	19553
3	Ardsley & Robin Hood	17238
4	Horbury and South Ossett	17170
5	Wakefield South	16656
6	Normanton	11191
7	Wakefield North	10466
8	Featherstone	9919
9	Wakefield West	9669
10	Wakefield East	7759

How affordable are the rents in Wakefield?

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

Beds	Wakefield	West Yorkshire
1	£475	£500
2	£550	£575
3	£650	£650
4	£850	£1100

How much can I earn in Wakefield per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Wakefield, 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 Wakefield'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	Wakefield (Wakefield)	£613.70
3	Bradford	£612.50
4	Kirklees	£612.00

So, is Wakefield a nice place to live?

* Probably.