Is Belper, Derbyshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Belper. 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 Belper. 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	Belper North	32038
2	Heage and Ambergate	30731
3	Belper South	29569
4	Kilburn, Denby and Holbrook	29169
5	Belper Central	28956
6	Wingfield	28700
7	Belper East	28603
8	Ripley and Marehay	25911
9	Shipley Park, Horsley and Horsley Woodhouse	25365
10	Ripley	21337

Is Belper a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Belper, 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 Belper 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	%
Amber Valley (Belper)	5.63
Erewash	5.66
North East Derbyshire	6.48
Ashfield	7.09

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Belper. 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 Belper. 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	Wingfield (Best)	21573
2	Heage and Ambergate	20690
3	Belper North	19825
4	Belper East	19647
5	Kilburn, Denby and Holbrook	19266
6	Belper South	18441
7	Shipley Park, Horsley and Horsley Woodhouse	16930
8	Belper Central	14520
9	Ripley and Marehay	12415
10	Ripley (Worst)	11682

Is Belper rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Belper. 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	Belper East	26133
2	Belper North	25335
3	Wingfield	22911
4	Kilburn, Denby and Holbrook	22842
5	Belper Central	21225
6	Heage and Ambergate	20694
7	Shipley Park, Horsley and Horsley Woodhouse	20021
8	Belper South	18998
9	Ripley and Marehay	17689
10	Ripley	15073

How affordable are the rents in Belper?

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

Beds	Amber Valley	Derbyshire
1	£440	£450
2	£550	£575
3	£650	£650
4	£895	£950

How much can I earn in Belper per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Amber Valley (Belper)	£662.90
2	Erewash	£659.90
3	North East Derbyshire	£653.20
4	Ashfield	£605.80

So, is Belper a nice place to live?

Belper has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, the rents in Belper are more expensive than other parts of Derbyshire.

* Probably.