Is Bacup, Lancashire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Bacup. 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 Bacup. 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	Goodshaw	27788
2	Cribden	20088
3	Whitewell	19659
4	Longholme	12658
5	Hareholme	11264
6	Facit and Shawforth	10515
7	Irwell	9642
8	Todmorden	9194
9	Greensclough	8717
10	Stacksteads	6982

Is Bacup a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Bacup, 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 Bacup 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	%
Bury	5.56
Pendle	5.82
Rossendale (Bacup)	6.12
Burnley	6.99

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Bacup. 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 Bacup. 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	Cribden (Best)	17212
2	Goodshaw	13860
3	Hareholme	12522
4	Facit and Shawforth	11938
5	Longholme	11770
6	Todmorden	9577
7	Greensclough	8817
8	Whitewell	8087
9	Irwell	7522
10	Stacksteads (Worst)	4917

Is Bacup rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Bacup. 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	Goodshaw	21000
2	Cribden	19505
3	Hareholme	12042
4	Longholme	11810
5	Facit and Shawforth	10302
6	Whitewell	10209
7	Greensclough	9587
8	Todmorden	9525
9	Irwell	7811
10	Stacksteads	4627

How affordable are the rents in Bacup?

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

Beds	Rossendale	Lancashire
1	£425	£450
2	£495	£535
3	£625	£625
4	£788	£875

How much can I earn in Bacup per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Bury	£629.90
2	Rossendale (Bacup)	£601.50
3	Burnley	£578.30
4	Pendle	£537.10

So, is Bacup a nice place to live?

* Probably.