Is Haywards Heath, West Sussex a nice place to live?

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

How likely are you to a victim of crime in Haywards Heath?

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Haywards Heath. 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 Haywards Heath. 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	Lindfield	30878
2	Haywards Heath Heath	29485
3	Haywards Heath Franklands	29446
4	Haywards Heath Lucastes	28529
5	Wivelsfield	26457
6	Cuckfield	25408
7	Burgess Hill St Andrews	25310
8	Haywards Heath Ashenground	23664
9	Haywards Heath Bentswood	23310
10	Burgess Hill Leylands	17807

Is Haywards Heath a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Haywards Heath, 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 Haywards Heath 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	%
Mid Sussex (Haywards Heath)	3.5
Crawley	4.33
Brighton and Hove	5.06
Lewes	5.49

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Haywards Heath. 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 Haywards Heath. 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	Lindfield (Best)	31692
2	Haywards Heath Franklands	31350
3	Haywards Heath Heath	30759
4	Cuckfield	29492
5	Wivelsfield	29481
6	Haywards Heath Lucastes	29082
7	Burgess Hill St Andrews	27432
8	Haywards Heath Ashenground	25935
9	Haywards Heath Bentswood	24381
10	Burgess Hill Leylands (Worst)	23811

Is Haywards Heath rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Haywards Heath. 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	Lindfield	31744
2	Haywards Heath Heath	31176
3	Haywards Heath Lucastes	30054
4	Wivelsfield	29809
5	Haywards Heath Franklands	28566
6	Cuckfield	26125
7	Haywards Heath Ashenground	26001
8	Burgess Hill St Andrews	25414
9	Haywards Heath Bentswood	23926
10	Burgess Hill Leylands	22591

How affordable are the rents in Haywards Heath?

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, Haywards Heath rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for West Sussex.

Beds	Mid Sussex	West Sussex
1	£775	£725
2	£975	£925
3	£1285	£1175
4	£1650	£1550

How much can I earn in Haywards Heath per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Mid Sussex (Haywards Heath)	£768.70
2	Lewes	£690.50
3	Brighton and Hove UA	£688.00
4	Crawley	£654.40

So, is Haywards Heath a nice place to live?

Haywards Heath has passed our core town assesment with a score of 4/5.  However, the rents in Haywards Heath are more expensive than other parts of West Sussex.

* Probably.