Is Bolton, Greater Manchester a nice place to live?

Is Bolton a nice place to live or is Bolton rough? Forget local estate agents sales speil and local councillors who say that Bolton is on the up an up, it's time for a bit of reality. Cold hard statistics culled from the Police, the Indices of Deprivation and the latest census. Is Bolton truly a nice place to live, or are Farnworth, Kearsley and Walkden a lot better? Time to find out.

What are the crime levels like in Bolton?

Using the latest Police street crime figures (typically from 3 months ago) we have compiled a table of the most voilent Policing areas in and around Bolton. Naturally the more urban and more central areas will have a higher rate of crime, but often you can be surprised when that is not the case and that is the area you want to move to.
Policing Area Voilent Crimes
Mill Hill 1
Tonge Moor 1
Tonge Fold 1
Halliwell 1
Brownlow Fold 1
Sharples 1
Great Lever 1
Hall i’ th’ Wood 0
Firwood Fold 0
Breightmet 0

The English Indices of Deprivation also has crime statistics for Bolton. These statistics are published by the government every 2-3 years. 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. We've taken the rank average for wards in and around Bolton and compared them. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst.

You least likely to be a victim of crime in the Heaton and Lostock ward.

Ward Average rank in England
Heaton and Lostock (Best) 13540/32845
Astley Bridge 10092/32845
Little Lever and Darcy Lever 10091/32845
Breightmet 6888/32845
Harper Green 5240/32845
Crompton 4436/32845
Great Lever 4321/32845
Rumworth 4068/32845
Tonge with the Haulgh 4036/32845
Halliwell (Worst) 1697/32845
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Your Health in Bolton

If you are thinking of moving to Bolton, you want to know if the place is likely to put you on a downward spiral of ill health. We've taken the healh question from the latest census to find out and how Bolton compares to its neighbouring local authorities. People were asked to rate their current health from very bad to very good;

Town Very Bad Bad
Wigan 1.49% 5.7%
Salford 1.7% 5.87%
Bolton (Bolton) 1.4% 5.23%
Rochdale 1.68% 5.88%

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Bolton. 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 rank for all the Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA) in each ward in and around Bolton. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst;

Ward Average rank in England
Heaton and Lostock (Best) 17416/32845
Astley Bridge 13100/32845
Little Lever and Darcy Lever 9142/32845
Rumworth 6730/32845
Breightmet 6524/32845
Great Lever 6138/32845
Harper Green 6018/32845
Crompton 5955/32845
Tonge with the Haulgh 4513/32845
Halliwell (Worst) 2415/32845
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Deprivation in Bolton

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average Index of Multiple Deprivation rank of all the LSOAs in the wards in and around Bolton. 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.

Ward Average rank in England
Heaton and Lostock (Best) 21872/32845
Astley Bridge 15871/32845
Little Lever and Darcy Lever 12104/32845
Breightmet 8512/32845
Crompton 6897/32845
Harper Green 5926/32845
Tonge with the Haulgh 4942/32845
Rumworth 4007/32845
Great Lever 3912/32845
Halliwell (Worst) 1664/32845

Average rent in Bolton

Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These statistics for Bolton are dated September 2021. They are split into three figures, the lower quartile, mean and upper quartile. If you recieve housing benefit or the housing benefit section of Universal Credit, the lower quartile is at the top limit of what would be affordable. The mean is the average you'd expect to pay for a rental property and the upper quartile is the average rental cost of the most expensive 25% of properties in Bolton.

Weekly Gross Pay and Hourly Pay in Bolton

If you are thinking of moving to Bolton, you'll want to know how much you can earn in a job in the town. The government publish regular statistics on gross weekly pay and pay per hour.

How grim is your Postcode?