Is Malvern, Worcestershire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Malvern. 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 Malvern. 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	Wells	26728
2	Chase	23608
3	Alfrick and Leigh	22730
4	West	22664
5	Upton and Hanley	21239
6	Link	21237
7	Priory	20993
8	Powick	20697
9	Dyson Perrins	18710
10	Pickersleigh	8142

Is Malvern a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Malvern, 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 Malvern 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	%
Tewkesbury	3.93
Worcester	4.8
Malvern Hills (Malvern)	5.02
Herefordshire, County of	5.25

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Malvern. 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 Malvern. 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	Alfrick and Leigh (Best)	28178
2	Wells	27886
3	Priory	25796
4	West	24944
5	Powick	23173
6	Dyson Perrins	22814
7	Link	20818
8	Upton and Hanley	19313
9	Chase	18192
10	Pickersleigh (Worst)	13923

Is Malvern rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Malvern. 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	Wells	29119
2	Priory	23664
3	West	22696
4	Chase	21354
5	Dyson Perrins	21100
6	Powick	20654
7	Alfrick and Leigh	18299
8	Link	18042
9	Upton and Hanley	13177
10	Pickersleigh	7762

How affordable are the rents in Malvern?

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

Beds	Malvern Hills	Worcestershire
1	£550	£525
2	£650	£675
3	£773	£795
4	£1188	£1100

How much can I earn in Malvern per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Malvern Hills (Malvern)	£736.00
2	Worcester	£681.20
3	Tewkesbury	£651.00
4	Herefordshire UA	£616.20

So, is Malvern a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.