Is Petworth, West Sussex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Petworth. 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 Petworth. 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	Loxwood	29181
2	Midhurst	27787
3	Easebourne	27575
4	Petworth	27366
5	Fernhurst	26997
6	Haslemere East and Grayswood	26933
7	Storrington & Washington	26560
8	Chiddingfold and Dunsfold	25960
9	Pulborough, Coldwaltham & Amberley	25678
10	Fittleworth	23763

Is Petworth a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Petworth, 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 Petworth 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	%
Horsham	3.53
East Hampshire	3.58
Chichester (Petworth)	4.31
Arun	5.43

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Petworth. 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 Petworth. 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	Haslemere East and Grayswood (Best)	30019
2	Chiddingfold and Dunsfold	28232
3	Fittleworth	27811
4	Loxwood	27785
5	Easebourne	27738
6	Storrington & Washington	26845
7	Pulborough, Coldwaltham & Amberley	26527
8	Midhurst	26494
9	Petworth	25501
10	Fernhurst (Worst)	24824

Is Petworth rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Petworth. 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	Haslemere East and Grayswood	29987
2	Chiddingfold and Dunsfold	26762
3	Fernhurst	23611
4	Pulborough, Coldwaltham & Amberley	22751
5	Storrington & Washington	22293
6	Midhurst	21780
7	Loxwood	20669
8	Easebourne	20633
9	Fittleworth	18912
10	Petworth	17552

How affordable are the rents in Petworth?

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

Beds	Chichester	West Sussex
1	£725	£725
2	£900	£925
3	£1125	£1175
4	£1650	£1550

How much can I earn in Petworth per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	East Hampshire	£732.00
2	Horsham	£707.00
3	Chichester (Petworth)	£661.20
4	Arun	£561.00

So, is Petworth a nice place to live?

Petworth has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, the rents in Petworth are more expensive than other parts of West Sussex.

* Probably.