Best places to live in Lancashire: house prices and data by area

Ribble Valley is the dearest at £268,750 and Burnley the cheapest at £145,000: the same budget buys 1.9 times as much home by price at one end of Lancashire as at the other.

The marker on each bar is the middle asking price of the new homes for sale there today. In 9 of the 9 council areas with enough new homes to compare, new homes are asking more than the homes sold around them: a new home is often larger or a different kind, so the gap is not the new-build premium on its own.

463 new homes are for sale across Lancashire today. Wyre has the most (110), then Preston (98).

Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. It runs from £158 in Hyndburn to £257 in Ribble Valley.

Sales for every thousand households show how often homes change hands, which is how much choice a buyer has in a year. Fylde is the busiest (33) and West Lancashire the quietest (27), around a middle of 29.

A busy market is a sign of both supply and demand: more homes are coming up, and more buyers are competing for them.

In Preston, 5% of the homes sold in the last twelve months were sold new, the highest share in Lancashire; in Ribble Valley it was 0%. New sales reach the register later than resales, so the latest months undercount them.

Sold prices were flat in the middle council area of Lancashire over the last year. Hyndburn moved most (up 8.1%) and Wyre least (down 5.0%).

The mix of homes sold changes from year to year, so a single council area can swing for that reason alone; read the pattern across the areas more than any one bar.

Over three years the middle council area's sold prices rose 5.8%, led by Burnley (up 20.0%).

Over three years the cheaper council areas of Lancashire have clearly grown faster than the dearer ones, closing some of the gap between them.

Council areas closer to Manchester have clearly seen more growth over three years than those further out.

Distance to Manchester does not explain prices in Lancashire: council areas near and far sell for much the same per square foot, so something else (the coast, a second city, the countryside) is setting them.

Unusually, council areas further from Manchester have clearly fewer workers driving to work.

Council areas with more schools judged good or better are clearly dearer: every ten points more goes with about £31,000 on the middle sold price. The schools do not cause all of that; both follow the same households.

A council area is large: the school a home is offered depends on its own address, so check the schools around a development before relying on this.

Attainment 8 is a pupil's score across eight GCSE subjects. The secondary schools of Preston average the highest in Lancashire (51.5) and those of Burnley the lowest (39.1).

Results do not follow distance to Manchester: there is no trade here between results and a short journey in.

Density says what kind of place an area is: how close the homes, shops, schools and stations sit. Hyndburn is the most built up (1,127 people per square kilometre) and Ribble Valley the least (106).

Older council areas in Lancashire are clearly better off. Areas above the line earn more than their age alone would suggest.

Areas towards the top right have the most children and the largest households: Pendle, Burnley and Hyndburn lead for residents under fifteen. Towards the bottom left are the areas with more single people and couples.

In the middle council area of Lancashire, 19% of households rent privately. Cheaper areas clearly have more renters.

Burnley, Hyndburn and Pendle have the highest walk scores in Lancashire. Denser areas are clearly more walkable, because more is close by; an area above the line is easier on foot than its density alone would suggest.

Another way to see how easy it is to get about is how many households manage without a car. In Burnley, 29% have none, the most in Lancashire. Areas towards the bottom right are where daily life depends least on driving.

A band D home pays £2,640 a year in Pendle, the most in Lancashire, and £2,387 in Ribble Valley, the least: a difference of £254 every year for the same band.

A new home is banded when it is finished, so ask the builder which band each plot is expected to fall in.

Police recorded 148 crimes for every thousand residents in Burnley over the last year held, and 52 in Ribble Valley. City centres record more because of the people who visit them, not only those who live there, and a council area's figure hides wide differences between its streets.