Are you considering moving to Birmingham in the UK but want to be sure if it’s a good decision? Hence your question, “is Birmingham a good place to live?”
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There are a number of factors to consider before deciding if Birmingham is a good place for you to live. These include security, cost of living, foreigners’ hospitality, etc.
Is Birmingham a Good Place to Live?
Birmingham seems to be a good place to stay, but it still has some red flags which can be some sort of holdbacks for anyone considering moving there.
We will be discussing these things so you can decide for yourself if you think Birmingham will be a good place for you to stay.
What Makes Birmingham a Good or Bad Place to Live?
Here are the factors we considered:
1. Cost of living
One of the most important things to consider when moving to any place is the cost of living there. You don’t want to live where you live from hand to mouth because the cost of living is crazy.
The cost of living in Birmingham seems pretty fair when compared to other places. A family of four can do well with 2,290 pounds on average. This excludes the rent for the family.
A single person can do well with about 682 pounds on average. Also, this is without the rent.
Birmingham is about 39.6% cheaper than New York, without considering rent.
This is a good thing to consider about Birmingham, especially if you are looking to school or fully reside there.
2. Security and crime rate
Nobody wants to live in the middle of a war zone, or in a place where one’s life is unsafe. Every other factor would not matter if safety is out of the window.
The crime rate seems to be high, which can be alarming for you intending to move there. As of 2023, the crime rate in Birmingham is 48% higher than in the west midlands, and also 76% more than England, Wales and Northern Ireland overall figures.
This really seems troubling, you can consider other places in the UK if it eases you. You might want to search other places in the UK.
But if it happens it has to be Birmingham, the rates do not imply that Birmingham is condemned unlivable at all.
3. Weather
The summers are usually short, comfortable and can be a little cloudy. The winters are long ones, and they can be windy and cloudy.
This information should prepare your mind for the weather shift from where you lived to Birmingham’s, which might be different from one another.
4. Amenities
This is another important factor to consider when considering moving to a new location. You don’t want to stay in a place where you and your family will not have access to basic amenities like education, health, good transportation, etc.
Education in Birmingham is really great. Birmingham ranks 10th in the UK for education. You will agree with me that this is no small feat for Birmingham.
Also, Birmingham seems good for foreign students looking to come study. The international students’ community in Birmingham is known to be one of the largest in the whole UK, it has over 10,000 students from over 150 countries. That is so amazing and will help as it is some sort of readily available support for any international student considering Birmingham.
5. Tax
Tax is also another strong factor to consider, as tax can be high in some states in the United States. You might think that it won’t hurt that you pay a few tens or hundreds of dollars every month.
The standard VAT rate in Birmingham is 20%, but there are 5% reductions on some specific items. The income tax in Birmingham is 1%, and this is different from the Alabama income tax and Federal income tax.
6. Economy and employment opportunities
You definitely want to know how easy it can be to get good jobs in the place you are planning to move to, or how the economy of the place is.
The recession in the UK started in the second half of last year (2022), and economic growth is expected to resume sometime in the second half of this year (2023). And of course, this is expected to cut across every part of the UK.
The economy of Birmingham’s GVA should grow by 1.1% from year to year in Q4 2023. Birmingham’s economy is known to be the fastest-growing economy in the midlands, and one of the fastest in the whole of the UK.
One downside is the rate of unemployment being at 11.3% in Birmingham, which is more than the rate in other core cities, and more than the UK’s average unemployment rate which is 4.5%.
Conclusion
I hope you have gotten all the necessary information you need to decide if living in Birmingham is a good place for you.
