Is Dudley, West Midlands a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Dudley. 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 Dudley. 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	Gornal	19341
2	Coseley East	14856
3	Upper Gornal and Woodsetton	14760
4	St James's	14148
5	Brockmoor and Pensnett	13455
6	Netherton, Woodside and St Andrews	13133
7	Tividale	13039
8	Castle and Priory	13025
9	St Thomas's	10983
10	Tipton Green	9902

Is Dudley a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Dudley, 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 Dudley 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	%
Dudley (Dudley)	6.07
Wolverhampton	6.34
Walsall	6.59
Sandwell	6.64

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Dudley. 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 Dudley. 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	Gornal (Best)	13963
2	Coseley East	10960
3	Upper Gornal and Woodsetton	10647
4	Tividale	9686
5	St James's	8768
6	Netherton, Woodside and St Andrews	7338
7	Brockmoor and Pensnett	7051
8	Castle and Priory	6775
9	St Thomas's	6375
10	Tipton Green (Worst)	5500

Is Dudley rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Dudley. 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	Gornal	16878
2	Coseley East	11807
3	Upper Gornal and Woodsetton	11734
4	St James's	10976
5	Tividale	10833
6	Castle and Priory	8096
7	Brockmoor and Pensnett	7618
8	Tipton Green	6573
9	Netherton, Woodside and St Andrews	5462
10	St Thomas's	4588

How affordable are the rents in Dudley?

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

Beds	Dudley	West Midlands
1	£495	£595
2	£600	£675
3	£725	£775
4	£998	£1100

How much can I earn in Dudley per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Dudley (Dudley)	£622.90
2	Sandwell	£613.30
3	Wolverhampton	£613.00
4	Walsall	£608.50

So, is Dudley a nice place to live?

* Probably.