Is Horsham, West Sussex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Horsham. 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 Horsham. 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	Holbrook East	29731
2	Holbrook West	28159
3	Southwater North	27924
4	Trafalgar	24574
5	Forest	24486
6	Broadbridge Heath	23460
7	Roffey South	23290
8	Itchingfield, Slinfold & Warnham	22838
9	Roffey North	21405
10	Denne	19492

Is Horsham a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Horsham, 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 Horsham 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	3.5
Horsham (Horsham)	3.53
Crawley	4.33
Adur	5.57

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Horsham. 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 Horsham. 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	Southwater North (Best)	29382
2	Holbrook East	27746
3	Broadbridge Heath	27224
4	Trafalgar	26894
5	Roffey North	26290
6	Forest	24640
7	Holbrook West	24334
8	Denne	22407
9	Itchingfield, Slinfold & Warnham	21280
10	Roffey South (Worst)	18170

Is Horsham rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Horsham. 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	Southwater North	29887
2	Holbrook East	29615
3	Trafalgar	29242
4	Broadbridge Heath	27510
5	Holbrook West	26606
6	Roffey North	26558
7	Forest	25219
8	Denne	22905
9	Roffey South	21520
10	Itchingfield, Slinfold & Warnham	16970

How affordable are the rents in Horsham?

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

Beds	Horsham	West Sussex
1	£805	£725
2	£1025	£925
3	£1300	£1175
4	£1750	£1550

How much can I earn in Horsham per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Horsham, 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 Horsham'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	£768.70
2	Horsham (Horsham)	£707.00
3	Crawley	£654.40
4	Adur	£590.50

So, is Horsham a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.