Is Garstang, Lancashire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Garstang. 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 Garstang. 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	Pilling	31243
2	Garstang	29322
3	Great Eccleston	29188
4	Wyresdale	28888
5	Hambleton & Stalmine	28541
6	Elswick and Little Eccleston	28290
7	Calder	28258
8	Brock with Catterall	26439
9	Preston Rural North	22088
10	Preston Rural East	20235

Is Garstang a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Garstang, 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 Garstang 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	%
South Ribble	4.96
Preston	5.57
Lancaster	5.6
Wyre (Garstang)	6.92

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Garstang. 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 Garstang. 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	Brock with Catterall (Best)	23342
2	Wyresdale	21131
3	Great Eccleston	20029
4	Calder	19984
5	Pilling	17203
6	Preston Rural North	14204
7	Garstang	12935
8	Preston Rural East	12842
9	Elswick and Little Eccleston	12820
10	Hambleton & Stalmine (Worst)	12485

Is Garstang rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Garstang. 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	Brock with Catterall	25377
2	Garstang	23426
3	Calder	23158
4	Great Eccleston	23125
5	Elswick and Little Eccleston	22935
6	Wyresdale	22385
7	Hambleton & Stalmine	22156
8	Preston Rural North	19796
9	Preston Rural East	18637
10	Pilling	18376

How affordable are the rents in Garstang?

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

Beds	Wyre	Lancashire
1	£450	£450
2	£578	£535
3	£650	£625
4	£895	£875

How much can I earn in Garstang per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Preston	£654.20
2	Wyre (Garstang)	£635.40
3	Lancaster	£629.80
4	South Ribble	£620.30

So, is Garstang a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.