Is Epping, Essex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Epping. 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 Epping. 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	Moreton and Fyfield	17679
2	Sumners and Kingsmoor	16069
3	Epping Hemnall	14331
4	Theydon Bois	13741
5	Epping Lindsey and Thornwood Common	13658
6	North Weald Bassett	13478
7	Loughton Fairmead	8046
8	Passingford	5635
9	Broadley Common, Epping Upland and Nazeing	5071
10	Waltham Abbey High Beach	3581

Is Epping a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Epping, 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 Epping 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	%
Epping Forest (Epping)	4.1
Broxbourne	4.38
Enfield	4.88
Harlow	5.09

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Epping. 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 Epping. 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	Theydon Bois (Best)	29299
2	Moreton and Fyfield	26917
3	Epping Lindsey and Thornwood Common	26602
4	Epping Hemnall	26345
5	Passingford	26159
6	Broadley Common, Epping Upland and Nazeing	25555
7	North Weald Bassett	24004
8	Waltham Abbey High Beach	22158
9	Loughton Fairmead	17931
10	Sumners and Kingsmoor (Worst)	14835

Is Epping rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Epping. 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	Theydon Bois	28018
2	Epping Hemnall	23728
3	Epping Lindsey and Thornwood Common	20901
4	North Weald Bassett	19947
5	Sumners and Kingsmoor	15269
6	Moreton and Fyfield	14571
7	Loughton Fairmead	13842
8	Broadley Common, Epping Upland and Nazeing	13013
9	Passingford	9468
10	Waltham Abbey High Beach	8666

How affordable are the rents in Epping?

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

Beds	Epping Forest	Essex
1	£900	£750
2	£1250	£900
3	£1495	£1150
4	£2100	£1500

How much can I earn in Epping per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Epping Forest (Epping)	£844.30
2	Broxbourne	£763.20
3	Enfield	£759.00
4	Harlow	£646.30

So, is Epping a nice place to live?

* Probably.