Is Wolverhampton, West Midlands a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Wolverhampton. 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 Wolverhampton. 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	Penn	25556
2	Merry Hill	24518
3	Park	12354
4	Blakenhall	12023
5	Ettingshall	11784
6	Bushbury South and Low Hill	11606
7	Heath Town	11327
8	Graiseley	11162
9	St Peter's	8908
10	East Park	8742

Is Wolverhampton a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Wolverhampton, 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 Wolverhampton 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	%
Wolverhampton (Wolverhampton)	6.34
Cannock Chase	6.41
Walsall	6.59
Sandwell	6.64

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Wolverhampton. 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 Wolverhampton. 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	Penn (Best)	14733
2	Merry Hill	12980
3	Blakenhall	8964
4	Park	8203
5	Ettingshall	8086
6	Heath Town	7267
7	St Peter's	6458
8	East Park	6433
9	Graiseley	6295
10	Bushbury South and Low Hill (Worst)	4792

Is Wolverhampton rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Wolverhampton. 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	Penn	20301
2	Merry Hill	16720
3	Park	9624
4	Blakenhall	8525
5	Graiseley	7094
6	Heath Town	5650
7	Ettingshall	5642
8	St Peter's	4484
9	East Park	4090
10	Bushbury South and Low Hill	4043

How affordable are the rents in Wolverhampton?

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, Wolverhampton rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for West Midlands.

Beds	Wolverhampton	West Midlands
1	£450	£595
2	£625	£675
3	£725	£775
4	£950	£1100

How much can I earn in Wolverhampton per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Cannock Chase	£632.10
2	Sandwell	£613.30
3	Wolverhampton (Wolverhampton)	£613.00
4	Walsall	£608.50

So, is Wolverhampton a nice place to live?

* Probably.