Is Chester, Cheshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Chester. 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 Chester. 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	Great Boughton	24173
2	Upton	22859
3	Newton & Hoole	21862
4	Handbridge Park	20356
5	Lache	14386
6	Chester City & the Garden Quarter	13451
7	Blacon	7737
8	Saltney Stonebridge	1134
9	Saltney Mold Junction	634
10	Sealand	167

Is Chester a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Chester, 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 Chester 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	%
Cheshire East	4.7
Cheshire West and Chester (Chester)	5.24
Flintshire	5.66
Wrexham	6.22

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Chester. 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 Chester. 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	Great Boughton (Best)	19232
2	Handbridge Park	18756
3	Upton	17607
4	Newton & Hoole	16477
5	Chester City & the Garden Quarter	11674
6	Lache	10338
7	Blacon	6881
8	Saltney Stonebridge	919
9	Saltney Mold Junction	681
10	Sealand (Worst)	440

Is Chester rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Chester. 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	Great Boughton	25383
2	Handbridge Park	23539
3	Upton	22244
4	Newton & Hoole	21771
5	Chester City & the Garden Quarter	16884
6	Lache	12206
7	Blacon	7726
8	Saltney Stonebridge	1038
9	Saltney Mold Junction	545
10	Sealand	367

How affordable are the rents in Chester?

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

Beds	Cheshire West and Chester
1	£525	£
2	£625	£
3	£745	£
4	£1100	£

How much can I earn in Chester per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Cheshire West and Chester (Chester)	£689.20
2	Cheshire East UA	£670.50
3	Flintshire / Sir y Fflint	£639.00
4	Wrexham / Wrecsam	£634.90

So, is Chester a nice place to live?

* Probably.