Is Southwold, Suffolk a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Southwold. 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 Southwold. 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	Halesworth & Blything	26004
2	Southwold	25128
3	Wrentham, Wangford & Westleton	22440
4	Carlton Colville	22432
5	Beccles & Worlingham	21125
6	Oulton Broad	20060
7	Carlton & Whitton	17932
8	Kessingland	17443
9	Kirkley & Pakefield	11843
10	Harbour & Normanston	5079

Is Southwold a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Southwold, 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 Southwold 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 Norfolk	4.35
Norwich	5.64
East Suffolk (Southwold)	5.73
Great Yarmouth	7.24

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Southwold. 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 Southwold. 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	Wrentham, Wangford & Westleton (Best)	23589
2	Halesworth & Blything	20643
3	Southwold	19841
4	Carlton Colville	18302
5	Beccles & Worlingham	17223
6	Oulton Broad	12652
7	Carlton & Whitton	11659
8	Kessingland	9998
9	Kirkley & Pakefield	8917
10	Harbour & Normanston (Worst)	6193

Is Southwold rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Southwold. 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	Southwold	18528
2	Carlton Colville	18506
3	Beccles & Worlingham	17864
4	Oulton Broad	16876
5	Halesworth & Blything	14408
6	Wrentham, Wangford & Westleton	13694
7	Carlton & Whitton	13167
8	Kessingland	10738
9	Kirkley & Pakefield	8926
10	Harbour & Normanston	3933

How affordable are the rents in Southwold?

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, Southwold rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for Suffolk.

Beds	East Suffolk	Suffolk
1	£435	£520
2	£595	£695
3	£675	£795
4	£900	£1250

How much can I earn in Southwold per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	South Norfolk	£656.90
2	Norwich	£648.50
3	East Suffolk (Southwold)	£633.80
4	Great Yarmouth	£624.50

So, is Southwold a nice place to live?

* Probably.