Is Godalming, Surrey a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Godalming. 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 Godalming. 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	Godalming Charterhouse	31244
2	Shalford	29247
3	Godalming Holloway	28311
4	Shamley Green and Cranleigh North	27300
5	Bramley, Busbridge and Hascombe	26027
6	Godalming Farncombe and Catteshall	21974
7	Godalming Binscombe	21856
8	Witley and Hambledon	21489
9	Milford	20998
10	Godalming Central and Ockford	19699

Is Godalming a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Godalming, 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 Godalming 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	%
Guildford	3.18
Waverley (Godalming)	3.2
Surrey Heath	3.23
Rushmoor	3.75

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Godalming. 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 Godalming. 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	Godalming Holloway (Best)	32068
2	Witley and Hambledon	28776
3	Shamley Green and Cranleigh North	28555
4	Shalford	27559
5	Godalming Charterhouse	27466
6	Godalming Farncombe and Catteshall	25794
7	Bramley, Busbridge and Hascombe	25387
8	Milford	25207
9	Godalming Central and Ockford	21842
10	Godalming Binscombe (Worst)	18166

Is Godalming rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Godalming. 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	Godalming Holloway	31858
2	Godalming Charterhouse	30306
3	Shamley Green and Cranleigh North	29536
4	Godalming Farncombe and Catteshall	28248
5	Milford	27069
6	Witley and Hambledon	26828
7	Shalford	26692
8	Bramley, Busbridge and Hascombe	25826
9	Godalming Central and Ockford	19756
10	Godalming Binscombe	19372

How affordable are the rents in Godalming?

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

Beds	Waverley	Surrey
1	£800	£900
2	£1100	£1170
3	£1398	£1450
4	£2000	£2250

How much can I earn in Godalming per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Waverley (Godalming)	£881.70
2	Surrey Heath	£818.30
3	Guildford	£778.20
4	Rushmoor	£704.40

So, is Godalming a nice place to live?

Godalming has passed our core town assesment with a score of 4/5.  However, the rents in Godalming are more expensive than other parts of Surrey.

* Probably.