Birstall
Kirklees 002 · 6 sub-areas · 9,906 residents
Kirklees 002 is a residential area within Kirklees, Yorkshire and The Humber, home to around 9,900 people. A typical two-bedroom home lets for about £691 a month — well below the UK median for a two-bed and a noticeable step down from larger Yorkshire cities. Rents rose around 10% in the past year, so it's affordable but moving in the same direction as everywhere else.
Birstall is a commuter neighbourhood within Kirklees — train into Leeds runs in around 58 minutes, and the rhythm of weekday mornings is shaped by it.
Overview
What's it like to live in Birstall?
Day-to-day life sits close to greenery — a park or playing field is within easy walking distance of most addresses; Recorded crime is higher than the national norm — common for built-up urban areas, but worth weighing if you're looking for a quieter base; rents are below the national norm, with a typical home letting at around £759 a month; gigabit broadband is effectively universal.
Generated from the latest May 2026 data · refreshed automatically
Figures are aggregated across 6 sub-areas — population-weighted means for rates, sums for counts. Sources cited beneath each section.
Birstall in Kirklees
Living in Birstall
This part of Kirklees has the feel of a settled, largely owner-occupied community — more than six in ten households own their home, which is high by urban Yorkshire standards. It's not a transient renter's neighbourhood; people tend to stay. The streets are spread out, car-dependent by necessity, and the pace is quieter than the district's bigger town centres.
For renters, the cost picture is genuinely attractive. A one-bed comes in at around £566 a month and a three-bed at about £839 — figures that represent real value against both regional and national benchmarks. The deposit hurdle is manageable too: it takes around 3.3 years of savings to get there, which is low compared to most English cities. Council tax runs to about £2,441 a year at Band D, which is fairly typical for a West Yorkshire authority.
The population is spread fairly evenly across age groups — just over a fifth are under 18, a similar share are 18 to 34, and a meaningful proportion (18%) are 65 and over. That balance gives the area a family-and-retiree feel rather than a young professional one. Social housing makes up around 22% of tenure, slightly above average for the area type, and sits alongside a private rented sector that accounts for fewer than one in six households.
Practically, you'll need a car. Only around 4% of residents commute by public transport, while more than six in ten drive. The nearest mainline rail station is roughly 3.9 km away — about a 48-minute walk, so effectively a drive or bus ride. The nearest major employment hub is around 61 minutes away by road or public transport. Greenspace is genuinely close, though: most residents are within reach of open space, with the average green area just 220 metres away. See the streets and sub-areas below for more.
What you'll need on day one
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Frequently asked
- Is Kirklees 002 a nice place to live?
- It's a settled, predominantly owner-occupied area with genuinely low rents and good access to greenspace — the average green area is just 220 metres away. The trade-off is that you'll need a car for almost everything, crime runs above the national average, and a smaller share of nearby schools are rated Good or Outstanding compared to the national picture.
- What is the rent in Kirklees 002?
- A one-bed runs about £566 a month, a two-bed around £691, and a three-bed roughly £839. These are estimates scaled from council-level data using local sale prices. Rents rose around 10.5% in the past year, but the area remains well below the UK median two-bed rent of around £1,200 a month.
- Is Kirklees 002 safe?
- Crime runs at around 106 incidents per 1,000 residents a year, which is above the UK national rate of roughly 80. The area sits in roughly the fourth deprivation decile nationally. It's not an outlier within West Yorkshire, but it's worth checking street-level figures for the specific street you're considering.
- What's the commute from Kirklees 002 to the nearest major city?
- The nearest major employment hub is around 61 minutes away by car or public transport. Only about 4% of residents commute by public transport — the vast majority drive. The nearest mainline rail station is roughly 3.9 km away, so you'd need a car or bus to reach it.
- Who lives in Kirklees 002?
- A fairly even spread of ages, with families and older settled residents the dominant groups. Over 62% of households own their home, 22% are in social housing, and private renters make up fewer than 15%. Around 95% of residents were born in the UK, making it one of the less diverse parts of Kirklees.
- What schools are near Kirklees 002?
- There are 64 schools within typical catchment distance, but only around 38% are rated Good or Outstanding — well below the national share of approximately 89%. The nearest Outstanding-rated school is about 3.7 km away. If school quality matters to you, it's worth researching individual schools rather than relying on the area average.
- How good is broadband in Kirklees 002?
- Excellent. The area has 100% gigabit-capable broadband coverage and no properties below the universal service obligation minimum. If you work from home — around 23% of residents do — connectivity won't be a problem.