Is Wokingham, Berkshire a nice place to live?

Is Wokingham a nice place to live or is Wokingham a bit rough? For us there are a number of factors that make any town a nice place to live, like a low crime rate, low levels of deprivation, the good health of the residents, rent affordability and excellent wages. In this article we will see if Wokingham meets our criteria.

How likely are you to a victim of crime in Wokingham?

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Wokingham. They are a measure of how likely you are to be a victim of personal or material crime in an area, such as muggings or burglary. Naturally rural areas have less crime than urban areas, but for this part of our town assessment we've looked at the 10 wards nearest to the centre of Wokingham. To pass this section, 8 out of 10 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5

#	Ward	Crime Rank
1	Barkham	32089
2	Finchampstead North	31716
3	Evendons	31340
4	Wokingham Without	29298
5	Finchampstead South	25671
6	Emmbrook	25552
7	Arborfield	24466
8	Norreys	22936
9	Great Hollands South	22917
10	Wescott	21018

Is Wokingham a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Wokingham, you want to know if the place is likely to put you on a downward spiral of ill health. For this section of the town assessment, we've examined government health statistics from the 2021 Census General Health question and the Indices of Multiple Deprivation's health element.The table below shows what percentage of Wokingham residents answered saying their health was either bad or very bad. To pass this section, the local authority has to have a percentage score less than or equal to 7%.

Local Authority	%
Wokingham (Wokingham)	2.65
Windsor and Maidenhead	3.02
Bracknell Forest	3.21
Reading	3.66

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Wokingham. They measures the risk of premature death and the impairment of quality of life through poor physical or mental health, lovely! We've collated an average LSOA rank for 10 wards nearest to the centre of Wokingham. To pass this section, 8 out of 10 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5.

#	Ward	Health Rank
1	Barkham (Best)	32314
2	Wescott	32190
3	Finchampstead North	32134
4	Arborfield	32118
5	Evendons	31775
6	Emmbrook	31097
7	Wokingham Without	30330
8	Finchampstead South	28930
9	Norreys	27888
10	Great Hollands South (Worst)	24729

Is Wokingham rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Wokingham. In layman's terms, this is how rough the ward is based on mutiple measures of deprivation including; employment, income, health, crime, housing and outside space. To pass this section as the town assessment, 8 out of 10 wards must have a ranking higher than the English average of 16422.5

#	Ward	Deprivation Rank
1	Finchampstead North	31610
2	Evendons	31074
3	Emmbrook	30956
4	Wescott	30158
5	Barkham	30071
6	Wokingham Without	28226
7	Norreys	26989
8	Arborfield	26760
9	Finchampstead South	26451
10	Great Hollands South	20961

How affordable are the rents in Wokingham?

Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These market rental statistics are dated September 2023. We have used the median rental figure for this assessment as we believe this is a more realistic figure than the average (mean) that can be skewed by artificially low and high rents. To pass this section, Wokingham rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for .

Beds	Wokingham
1	£825	£
2	£1000	£
3	£1250	£
4	£1650	£

How much can I earn in Wokingham per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Wokingham, you'll want to know how much you can earn in a job in the town. Every year the government publishes statistics on gross weekly pay, these figures are for September 2023. To pass this section Wokingham's local authority needs to be in first or second place compared to the three nearest local authorities.

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Wokingham (Wokingham)	£870.70
2	Windsor and Maidenhead UA	£787.30
3	Bracknell Forest UA	£743.80
4	Reading UA	£728.30

So, is Wokingham a nice place to live?

Wokingham has passed our core town assesment with a score of 4/5.  However, the rents in Wokingham are more expensive than other parts of .

* Probably.