Small Heath
Neighbourhood · 21,385 residents
60Good
Good · better than 5 in 10 suburbs
Check Local Score out of 100 · 60 is typical for the country
Each arc is a topic, coloured by its score
What’s good
- Less recorded crime than is typical: 74 per 1,000 people a year against 100
Check before you view
- Property market scores 24, below the typical 60
The essentials
Everyday life
The area
Around Small Heath
Map outline: Approximate — electoral ward boundary, used as the nearest surveyed shape
Is Small Heath a good place to live?
Small Heath scores 60/100 overall, which the scorecard rates as good — 60 is typical for the country.
It stands out for safety (71).
It scores lowest on property market (24).
Scores come from official data on safety, schools, transport, prices, health, food & drink and the local environment, for Small Heath in West Midlands, each measured against the national average.
Summary of Small Heath
Terraced Victorian streets run close together here, dense enough that you're never far from a corner shop or a mosque, and the age profile on the pavements skews young — students, young families, first-generation homeowners. It's one of the more densely packed suburbs you'll find in the West Midlands, and it reads that way: compact, functional, unpolished around the edges.
The practical picture is a mixed one worth sitting with. Small Heath has its own rail station, but with only one line serving the area and a single stop counted in the local network, this is not a place built around effortless commuting — you're relying on that one connection or the bus. Schools tell a more encouraging story: The Olive School, Small Heath carries an Outstanding rating, and while results across the nine local schools vary, that anchor school alone will matter to anyone with young children. Housing is where the numbers diverge sharply from the rest of the profile — a median price of £180,000 sits well below both the regional figure and the national average, roughly a quarter cheaper than Birmingham as a whole, and terraced freehold houses dominate what's for sale, 24 of the last 36 recorded sales. A For Sale board here most often means an actual house, not a flat, and one you own outright rather than lease. That affordability is real, but it sits against a D+ grade for housing quality, the one sour note in an otherwise decent set of marks, and it's worth understanding why before you commit.