Is Leeds, Yorkshire a nice place to live?

Is Leeds a nice place to live or is Leeds rough? Forget local estate agents sales speil and local councillors who say that Leeds 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 Leeds truly a nice place to live, or are West Bridgefield, Morley and Rothwell a lot better? Time to find out.

What are the crime levels like in Leeds?

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 Leeds. 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
Sheepscar 540
Burmantofts 394
Harehills 394
Little London 381
Holbeck 246
Knowsthorpe 244
Beeston Hill 215
Potternewton 164
Miles Hill 162
Cross Green 120

The English Indices of Deprivation also has crime statistics for Leeds. 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 Leeds 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 Headingley & Hyde Park ward.

Ward Average rank in England
Headingley & Hyde Park (Best) 7322/32845
Little London & Woodhouse 6175/32845
Hunslet & Riverside 5541/32845
Chapel Allerton 4476/32845
Farnley & Wortley 4167/32845
Beeston & Holbeck 3661/32845
Middleton Park 3498/32845
Burmantofts & Richmond Hill 2819/32845
Armley 1181/32845
Gipton & Harehills (Worst) 1031/32845
Reader Opinion:

You haven't yet read about a town so pathetic & 'wannabe' as Morley

Your Health in Leeds

If you are thinking of moving to Leeds, 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 Leeds compares to its neighbouring local authorities. People were asked to rate their current health from very bad to very good;

Town Very Bad Bad
Leeds (Leeds) 1.22% 4.19%
Bradford 1.33% 4.55%
Wakefield 1.7% 5.99%
Kirklees 1.25% 4.5%

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Leeds. 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 Leeds. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst;

Ward Average rank in England
Farnley & Wortley (Best) 8361/32845
Chapel Allerton 8121/32845
Beeston & Holbeck 7251/32845
Headingley & Hyde Park 6441/32845
Hunslet & Riverside 6432/32845
Middleton Park 5537/32845
Little London & Woodhouse 5277/32845
Armley 4561/32845
Gipton & Harehills 4251/32845
Burmantofts & Richmond Hill (Worst) 4241/32845
Reader Opinion:

Desborough - It amazes me how shallow the gene pool is

Deprivation in Leeds

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 Leeds. 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
Headingley & Hyde Park (Best) 14033/32845
Little London & Woodhouse 9053/32845
Farnley & Wortley 8688/32845
Chapel Allerton 7942/32845
Hunslet & Riverside 7185/32845
Beeston & Holbeck 5972/32845
Middleton Park 4542/32845
Armley 4203/32845
Burmantofts & Richmond Hill 2898/32845
Gipton & Harehills (Worst) 1800/32845

Average rent in Leeds

Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These statistics for Leeds 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 Leeds.

Weekly Gross Pay and Hourly Pay in Leeds

If you are thinking of moving to Leeds, 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?