Is Salcombe, Devon a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Salcombe. 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 9 wards nearest to the centre of Salcombe. To pass this section, 7 out of 9 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5

#	Ward	Crime Rank
1	Charterlands	32105
2	Stokenham	31952
3	Loddiswell & Aveton Gifford	31647
4	Allington & Strete	31237
5	Ivybridge West	29565
6	Ermington & Ugborough	29281
7	West Dart	28847
8	Salcombe & Thurlestone	28001
9	Kingsbridge	25733

Is Salcombe a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Salcombe, 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 Salcombe 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	%
South Hams (Salcombe)	5
Teignbridge	5.42
Plymouth	6.42
Torbay	7.33

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Salcombe. 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 9 wards nearest to the centre of Salcombe. To pass this section, 7 out of 9 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5.

#	Ward	Health Rank
1	West Dart (Best)	29703
2	Loddiswell & Aveton Gifford	29073
3	Allington & Strete	28798
4	Stokenham	27360
5	Ermington & Ugborough	26342
6	Charterlands	25930
7	Ivybridge West	24557
8	Salcombe & Thurlestone	22922
9	Kingsbridge	19653

Is Salcombe rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 9 wards in and around Salcombe. 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, 7 out of 9 wards must have a ranking higher than the English average of 16422.5

#	Ward	Deprivation Rank
1	Ivybridge West	28066
2	Charterlands	21441
3	Salcombe & Thurlestone	19200
4	Kingsbridge	18441
5	Ermington & Ugborough	18334
6	West Dart	17635
7	Stokenham	17340
8	Loddiswell & Aveton Gifford	17329
9	Allington & Strete	16970

How affordable are the rents in Salcombe?

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

Beds	South Hams	Devon
1	£575	£550
2	£700	£680
3	£850	£850
4	£1200	£1300

How much can I earn in Salcombe per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	South Hams (Salcombe)	£669.00
2	Plymouth UA	£620.50
3	Teignbridge	£597.50
4	Torbay UA	£574.90

So, is Salcombe a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.