About the Data
Manchester Neighbourhoods uses publicly available open data to produce objective, comparable scores for every neighbourhood. Here's exactly where our data comes from and how we use it.
Police UK API ↗ data.police.uk
What: Crime incidents by neighbourhood
We query the Greater Manchester Police neighbourhood boundaries and crime statistics API monthly. Crime figures represent the 6 most recent months of available data.
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0
HM Land Registry ↗ landregistry.data.gov.uk
What: Residential property sale prices
Sale prices are aggregated from the Price Paid Dataset for postcodes within each neighbourhood boundary. Figures represent median sold prices for the most recent 12 months.
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0
ONS Census 2021 ↗ www.ons.gov.uk/census
What: Demographics — population, age, ethnicity
Population and demographic data is sourced from the 2021 England & Wales Census at Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA) level, mapped to Police neighbourhood boundaries.
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0
OpenStreetMap ↗ www.openstreetmap.org
What: Points of interest — shops, transport, amenities
POI counts (restaurants, gyms, schools, tram stops etc.) are queried via the Overpass API within a 600m radius of each neighbourhood's centroid.
Licence: ODbL (Open Database Licence)
Transport for Greater Manchester ↗ www.tfgm.com
What: Metrolink tram lines and stops
Metrolink stop names and line data sourced from TfGM open data and cross-referenced with neighbourhood boundaries.
Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0
How Scores Are Calculated
Each neighbourhood receives five dimension scores (0–10) which combine into an overall score using a weighted average:
- Safety (30%) — Inverted crime rate versus Manchester average
- Affordability (20%) — Inverted sale price per m² versus Manchester average
- Transport (20%) — Metrolink stop density + bus stop coverage
- Amenities (20%) — Total POI count (shops, restaurants, schools, gyms)
- Community (10%) — Diversity and youth proportion as a vibrancy proxy
All scores are calculated programmatically from the raw data — no editorial adjustments are made. As more data becomes available, scores will be refined.
Limitations
🔶 Crime data uses centroid-based queries which may undercount crimes across larger neighbourhoods.
🔶 Rent estimates are indicative — actual rents vary significantly within each neighbourhood.
🔶 Census data is from 2021 and may not reflect recent demographic shifts.
🔶 POI counts cover a 600m radius — coverage varies by neighbourhood size.