Is Lowestoft, Suffolk a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Lowestoft. 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 Lowestoft. 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	Carlton Colville	22432
2	Bradwell South and Hopton	20698
3	Oulton Broad	20060
4	Carlton & Whitton	17932
5	Lothingland	17868
6	Kessingland	17443
7	Magdalen	16834
8	Gunton & St Margarets	14195
9	Kirkley & Pakefield	11843
10	Harbour & Normanston	5079

Is Lowestoft a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Lowestoft, 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 Lowestoft 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 (Lowestoft)	5.73
Great Yarmouth	7.24

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Lowestoft. 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 Lowestoft. 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	Carlton Colville (Best)	18302
2	Lothingland	14527
3	Bradwell South and Hopton	13007
4	Oulton Broad	12652
5	Carlton & Whitton	11659
6	Kessingland	9998
7	Gunton & St Margarets	8964
8	Kirkley & Pakefield	8917
9	Magdalen	7191
10	Harbour & Normanston (Worst)	6193

Is Lowestoft rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Lowestoft. 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	Carlton Colville	18506
2	Bradwell South and Hopton	17321
3	Oulton Broad	16876
4	Lothingland	14970
5	Carlton & Whitton	13167
6	Gunton & St Margarets	11601
7	Kessingland	10738
8	Kirkley & Pakefield	8926
9	Magdalen	6523
10	Harbour & Normanston	3933

How affordable are the rents in Lowestoft?

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, Lowestoft 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 Lowestoft per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Lowestoft, 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 Lowestoft'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 (Lowestoft)	£633.80
4	Great Yarmouth	£624.50

So, is Lowestoft a nice place to live?

* Probably.