Is Halesworth, Suffolk a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Halesworth. 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 Halesworth. 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	Fressingfield	30813
2	Kelsale & Yoxford	26585
3	Halesworth & Blything	26004
4	Harleston	25887
5	Southwold	25128
6	Ditchingham & Earsham	24593
7	Wrentham, Wangford & Westleton	22440
8	Bungay & Wainford	21365
9	Beccles & Worlingham	21125
10	Saxmundham	18825

Is Halesworth a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Halesworth, 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 Halesworth 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 Norfolk	4.35
Norwich	5.64
East Suffolk (Halesworth)	5.73
Great Yarmouth	7.24

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Halesworth. 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 Halesworth. 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	Fressingfield (Best)	31529
2	Wrentham, Wangford & Westleton	23589
3	Harleston	23046
4	Kelsale & Yoxford	22807
5	Saxmundham	21905
6	Ditchingham & Earsham	21846
7	Halesworth & Blything	20643
8	Southwold	19841
9	Bungay & Wainford	17673
10	Beccles & Worlingham (Worst)	17223

Is Halesworth rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Halesworth. 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	Southwold	18528
2	Beccles & Worlingham	17864
3	Harleston	17582
4	Ditchingham & Earsham	15895
5	Saxmundham	15758
6	Fressingfield	15017
7	Halesworth & Blything	14408
8	Bungay & Wainford	13702
9	Wrentham, Wangford & Westleton	13694
10	Kelsale & Yoxford	13367

How affordable are the rents in Halesworth?

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

Beds	East Suffolk	Suffolk
1	£435	£520
2	£595	£695
3	£675	£795
4	£900	£1250

How much can I earn in Halesworth per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	South Norfolk	£656.90
2	Norwich	£648.50
3	East Suffolk (Halesworth)	£633.80
4	Great Yarmouth	£624.50

So, is Halesworth a nice place to live?

Halesworth has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, Halesworth does more pockets of deprivation than the average town.

* Probably.