Is Lewes, East Sussex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Lewes. 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 Lewes. 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	Plumpton, Streat, East Chiltington & St John	30737
2	Chailey, Barcombe & Hamsey	26430
3	Arlington	26412
4	Woodingdean	24054
5	Kingston	23241
6	Lewes Priory	21114
7	Lewes Bridge	21064
8	Peacehaven North	20857
9	Moulsecoomb and Bevendean	14253
10	Lewes Castle	14251

Is Lewes a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Lewes, 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 Lewes 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
Wealden	4.42
Brighton and Hove	5.06
Lewes (Lewes)	5.49

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Lewes. 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 Lewes. 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	Kingston (Best)	29516
2	Chailey, Barcombe & Hamsey	28146
3	Plumpton, Streat, East Chiltington & St John	27250
4	Arlington	26988
5	Lewes Priory	25526
6	Lewes Bridge	24783
7	Lewes Castle	23685
8	Peacehaven North	17803
9	Woodingdean	16781
10	Moulsecoomb and Bevendean (Worst)	8465

Is Lewes rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Lewes. 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	Lewes Priory	25335
2	Plumpton, Streat, East Chiltington & St John	24573
3	Lewes Bridge	21278
4	Arlington	20948
5	Chailey, Barcombe & Hamsey	18674
6	Kingston	18116
7	Lewes Castle	17547
8	Woodingdean	16869
9	Peacehaven North	16516
10	Moulsecoomb and Bevendean	8198

How affordable are the rents in Lewes?

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

Beds	Lewes	East Sussex
1	£750	£650
2	£950	£825
3	£1200	£1095
4	£1500	£1460

How much can I earn in Lewes per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Lewes, 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 Lewes'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	Lewes (Lewes)	£690.50
3	Brighton and Hove UA	£688.00
4	Wealden	£679.90

So, is Lewes a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.