Is Gloucester, Gloucestershire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Gloucester. 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 Gloucester. 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	Longlevens	30329
2	Barnwood	26030
3	Elmbridge	25749
4	Innsworth	24931
5	Podsmead	16916
6	Moreland	12067
7	Kingsholm and Wotton	9781
8	Coney Hill	9337
9	Westgate	7855
10	Barton and Tredworth	7066

Is Gloucester a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Gloucester, 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 Gloucester 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	%
Tewkesbury	3.93
Cheltenham	4.03
Gloucester (Gloucester)	4.94
Herefordshire, County of	5.25

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Gloucester. 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 Gloucester. 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	Longlevens (Best)	18257
2	Innsworth	16938
3	Elmbridge	15525
4	Barnwood	14803
5	Moreland	7634
6	Coney Hill	7047
7	Podsmead	6915
8	Barton and Tredworth	5316
9	Kingsholm and Wotton	5122
10	Westgate (Worst)	4787

Is Gloucester rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Gloucester. 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	Longlevens	28482
2	Elmbridge	22365
3	Barnwood	20695
4	Innsworth	18401
5	Moreland	9628
6	Kingsholm and Wotton	9551
7	Podsmead	8066
8	Coney Hill	6161
9	Barton and Tredworth	5385
10	Westgate	4884

How affordable are the rents in Gloucester?

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

Beds	Gloucester	Gloucestershire
1	£560	£585
2	£675	£725
3	£833	£895
4	£1195	£1300

How much can I earn in Gloucester per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Cheltenham	£689.80
2	Tewkesbury	£651.00
3	Herefordshire UA	£616.20
4	Gloucester (Gloucester)	£613.60

So, is Gloucester a nice place to live?

* Probably.