Is Blandford Forum, Dorset a nice place to live?

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

How likely are you to a victim of crime in Blandford Forum?

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Blandford Forum. 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 Blandford Forum. 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	Puddletown & Lower Winterborne	30097
2	Winterborne North	29220
3	Blackmore Vale	29024
4	Sturminster Newton	28783
5	Hill Forts & Upper Tarrants	27815
6	Cranborne Chase	26926
7	Blandford	24565
8	Beacon	24111
9	Stour & Allen Vale	23779
10	Wimborne Minster	18287

Is Blandford Forum a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Blandford Forum, 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 Blandford Forum 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	%
New Forest	4.79
South Somerset	4.96
Dorset (Blandford Forum)	5.1
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole	5.24

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Blandford Forum. 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 Blandford Forum. 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	Stour & Allen Vale (Best)	31219
2	Cranborne Chase	28633
3	Sturminster Newton	25319
4	Wimborne Minster	24785
5	Blackmore Vale	24714
6	Puddletown & Lower Winterborne	24658
7	Hill Forts & Upper Tarrants	23682
8	Beacon	23040
9	Winterborne North	22493
10	Blandford (Worst)	21908

Is Blandford Forum rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Blandford Forum. 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	Stour & Allen Vale	23460
2	Wimborne Minster	23208
3	Sturminster Newton	20230
4	Blandford	20146
5	Puddletown & Lower Winterborne	18852
6	Cranborne Chase	18360
7	Hill Forts & Upper Tarrants	17888
8	Blackmore Vale	17785
9	Winterborne North	16634
10	Beacon	15258

How affordable are the rents in Blandford Forum?

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

Beds	Dorset
1	£600	£
2	£750	£
3	£918	£
4	£1250	£

How much can I earn in Blandford Forum per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole UA	£674.90
2	New Forest	£674.10
3	Dorset UA (Blandford Forum)	£668.40

So, is Blandford Forum a nice place to live?

Blandford Forum has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, the rents in Blandford Forum are more expensive than other parts of .

* Probably.