Is Sudbury, Suffolk a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Sudbury. 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 9 wards nearest to the centre of Sudbury. To pass this section, 7 out of 9 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5

#	Ward	Crime Rank
1	Stour Valley South	28195
2	Stour Valley North	24272
3	Long Melford	21099
4	Bures St Mary & Nayland	16646
5	Great Cornard	16625
6	Assington	14788
7	Sudbury South East	14752
8	Sudbury North West	13302
9	Sudbury North East	12930

Is Sudbury a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Sudbury, 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 Sudbury 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	%
Mid Suffolk	4.21
Babergh (Sudbury)	4.41
Braintree	4.44
Tendring	7.77

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Sudbury. 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 9 wards nearest to the centre of Sudbury. To pass this section, 7 out of 9 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5.

#	Ward	Health Rank
1	Stour Valley South (Best)	28867
2	Assington	27619
3	Stour Valley North	26435
4	Bures St Mary & Nayland	26418
5	Long Melford	23845
6	Sudbury North West	18608
7	Great Cornard	18562
8	Sudbury North East	16953
9	Sudbury South East	16520

Is Sudbury rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 9 wards in and around Sudbury. 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, 7 out of 9 wards must have a ranking higher than the English average of 16422.5

#	Ward	Deprivation Rank
1	Stour Valley South	19590
2	Long Melford	19452
3	Assington	19120
4	Stour Valley North	18375
5	Bures St Mary & Nayland	17779
6	Great Cornard	16223
7	Sudbury North West	15801
8	Sudbury South East	15358
9	Sudbury North East	12626

How affordable are the rents in Sudbury?

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

Beds	Babergh	Suffolk
1	£580	£520
2	£700	£695
3	£825	£795
4	£1100	£1250

How much can I earn in Sudbury per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Braintree	£695.20
2	Mid Suffolk	£657.50
3	Babergh (Sudbury)	£635.20
4	Tendring	£612.40

So, is Sudbury a nice place to live?

* Probably.