Is Basildon, Essex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Basildon. 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 Basildon. 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	St George's	24037
2	Langdon Hills	18196
3	Wickford Park	18063
4	Nethermayne	8638
5	Fryerns	7830
6	Pitsea North West	5091
7	Vange	2188
8	Lee Chapel North	2036
9	Pitsea South East	1893
10	St Martin's	1662

Is Basildon a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Basildon, 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 Basildon 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	%
Brentwood	3.77
Rochford	4.24
Basildon (Basildon)	5.03
Castle Point	5.47

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Basildon. 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 Basildon. 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	St George's (Best)	25169
2	Wickford Park	23740
3	Langdon Hills	22850
4	Nethermayne	18590
5	St Martin's	12359
6	Fryerns	12108
7	Lee Chapel North	10074
8	Vange	9450
9	Pitsea North West	9364
10	Pitsea South East (Worst)	8360

Is Basildon rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Basildon. 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	St George's	24789
2	Langdon Hills	24307
3	Wickford Park	21617
4	Nethermayne	15601
5	Fryerns	7972
6	Lee Chapel North	6325
7	St Martin's	6301
8	Pitsea North West	6099
9	Pitsea South East	5976
10	Vange	4713

How affordable are the rents in Basildon?

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

Beds	Basildon	Essex
1	£775	£750
2	£975	£900
3	£1200	£1150
4	£1550	£1500

How much can I earn in Basildon per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Brentwood	£941.40
2	Rochford	£827.60
3	Basildon (Basildon)	£693.90
4	Castle Point	£681.00

So, is Basildon a nice place to live?

* Probably.