Is Soham, Cambridgeshire a nice place to live?

Is Soham a nice place to live or is Soham 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 Soham meets our criteria.

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Soham. 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 Soham. 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	Fordham & Isleham	30201
2	Burwell	26321
3	Ely West	25783
4	Stretham	25191
5	Soham North	24904
6	Ely East	24403
7	Exning	23792
8	Soham South	23702
9	The Rows	22195
10	Newmarket West	16586

Is Soham a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Soham, 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 Soham 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	%
East Cambridgeshire (Soham)	4.14
West Suffolk	4.36
King's Lynn and West Norfolk	5.93
Fenland	6.38

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Soham. 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 Soham. 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	Stretham (Best)	29377
2	Ely East	29088
3	Ely West	28480
4	Burwell	27957
5	Soham North	26708
6	Fordham & Isleham	26040
7	Soham South	25170
8	Exning	23256
9	The Rows	21770
10	Newmarket West (Worst)	20273

Is Soham rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Soham. 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	Burwell	26674
2	Ely West	25260
3	Stretham	25240
4	Ely East	23673
5	Fordham & Isleham	23669
6	Exning	21957
7	Soham North	21449
8	Newmarket West	20267
9	Soham South	19946
10	The Rows	13460

How affordable are the rents in Soham?

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, Soham rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for Cambridgeshire.

Beds	East Cambridgeshire	Cambridgeshire
1	£625	£795
2	£750	£850
3	£925	£1050
4	£1300	£1500

How much can I earn in Soham per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Soham, 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 Soham's local authority needs to be in first or second place compared to the three nearest local authorities.

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	East Cambridgeshire (Soham)	£704.40
2	Fenland	£679.00
3	King's Lynn and West Norfolk	£650.60
4	West Suffolk	£637.80

So, is Soham a nice place to live?

Soham has passed our core town assesment with flying colours with a score of 5/5. It doesn't get any better than that!

* Probably.