Is Washington, Tyne and Wear a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Washington. 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 Washington. 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	North Lodge	22916
2	Washington South	22077
3	Washington West	19464
4	Washington East	19206
5	Washington Central	18744
6	Birtley	11839
7	Lamesley	11714
8	Pelton	11036
9	Shiney Row	9715
10	Windy Nook and Whitehills	6215

Is Washington a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Washington, 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 Washington 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	%
Newcastle upon Tyne	6.33
Gateshead	7.37
South Tyneside	7.66
Sunderland (Washington)	8

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Washington. 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 Washington. 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	North Lodge (Best)	16340
2	Washington South	11460
3	Pelton	9694
4	Washington East	9435
5	Washington Central	8988
6	Shiney Row	8451
7	Washington West	8270
8	Birtley	6350
9	Lamesley	5582
10	Windy Nook and Whitehills (Worst)	4568

Is Washington rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Washington. 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	North Lodge	26141
2	Washington South	16939
3	Pelton	14908
4	Washington West	14864
5	Washington East	14786
6	Washington Central	13808
7	Shiney Row	13464
8	Birtley	10474
9	Lamesley	8595
10	Windy Nook and Whitehills	7258

How affordable are the rents in Washington?

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, Washington rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for Tyne and Wear.

Beds	Sunderland	Tyne and Wear
1	£425	£480
2	£500	£550
3	£550	£639
4	£850	£1250

How much can I earn in Washington per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Newcastle upon Tyne	£635.00
2	Gateshead	£605.10
3	South Tyneside	£600.00
4	Sunderland (Washington)	£582.40

So, is Washington a nice place to live?

* Probably.