Is Lye, West Midlands a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Lye. 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 Lye. 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	Norton	25833
2	Wordsley	24081
3	Amblecote	19943
4	Pedmore and Stourbridge East	19355
5	Wollaston and Stourbridge Town	16122
6	Cradley and Wollescote	16112
7	Lye and Stourbridge North	16095
8	Quarry Bank and Dudley Wood	15006
9	Brockmoor and Pensnett	13455
10	Brierley Hill	13442

Is Lye a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Lye, 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 Lye 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 Staffordshire	5.31
Dudley (Lye)	6.07
Wolverhampton	6.34
Sandwell	6.64

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Lye. 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 Lye. 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	Norton (Best)	19316
2	Pedmore and Stourbridge East	16119
3	Amblecote	15693
4	Wordsley	15597
5	Wollaston and Stourbridge Town	14862
6	Lye and Stourbridge North	12481
7	Quarry Bank and Dudley Wood	10462
8	Cradley and Wollescote	9621
9	Brierley Hill	8137
10	Brockmoor and Pensnett (Worst)	7051

Is Lye rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Lye. 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	Norton	23023
2	Wordsley	21334
3	Amblecote	21273
4	Pedmore and Stourbridge East	19923
5	Wollaston and Stourbridge Town	16589
6	Lye and Stourbridge North	14000
7	Cradley and Wollescote	9465
8	Quarry Bank and Dudley Wood	8950
9	Brierley Hill	8198
10	Brockmoor and Pensnett	7618

How affordable are the rents in Lye?

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

Beds	Dudley	West Midlands
1	£495	£595
2	£600	£675
3	£725	£775
4	£998	£1100

How much can I earn in Lye per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	South Staffordshire	£725.00
2	Dudley (Lye)	£622.90
3	Sandwell	£613.30
4	Wolverhampton	£613.00

So, is Lye a nice place to live?

* Probably.