Is Wesham, Lancashire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Wesham. 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 Wesham. 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	Ribby-with-Wrea	30227
2	Newton and Treales	27452
3	St Johns	26458
4	Freckleton West	25133
5	Freckleton East	23857
6	Warton and Westby	22283
7	Clifton	22254
8	Kirkham North	21202
9	Kirkham South	19117
10	Medlar-with-Wesham	17717

Is Wesham a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Wesham, 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 Wesham 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	%
Preston	5.57
Fylde (Wesham)	5.78
Wyre	6.92
Blackpool	9.13

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Wesham. 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 Wesham. 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	Ribby-with-Wrea (Best)	23457
2	St Johns	20005
3	Newton and Treales	18218
4	Kirkham North	18169
5	Freckleton East	16331
6	Clifton	14167
7	Medlar-with-Wesham	12515
8	Warton and Westby	12074
9	Freckleton West	12069
10	Kirkham South (Worst)	7759

Is Wesham rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Wesham. 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	Ribby-with-Wrea	31904
2	St Johns	24776
3	Newton and Treales	24411
4	Kirkham North	24177
5	Clifton	23333
6	Freckleton West	21896
7	Freckleton East	20385
8	Medlar-with-Wesham	18769
9	Warton and Westby	16366
10	Kirkham South	15285

How affordable are the rents in Wesham?

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

Beds	Fylde	Lancashire
1	£450	£450
2	£575	£535
3	£700	£625
4	£950	£875

How much can I earn in Wesham per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Fylde (Wesham)	£725.50
2	Preston	£654.20
3	Wyre	£635.40
4	Blackpool UA	£532.90

So, is Wesham a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.