Is Harwich, Essex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Harwich. 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 Harwich. 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	Ganges	27960
2	Stour	27285
3	Orwell & Villages	23630
4	Eastern Felixstowe	21300
5	Dovercourt Tollgate	16449
6	Western Felixstowe	15820
7	Dovercourt Vines & Parkeston	12975
8	Dovercourt All Saints	12022
9	Dovercourt Bay	8620
10	Harwich & Kingsway	2733

Is Harwich a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Harwich, 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 Harwich 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	%
Mid Suffolk	4.21
Ipswich	5.05
East Suffolk	5.73
Tendring (Harwich)	7.77

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Harwich. 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 Harwich. 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 (Best)	29218
2	Ganges	27394
3	Orwell & Villages	21610
4	Eastern Felixstowe	18083
5	Western Felixstowe	13364
6	Dovercourt Vines & Parkeston	9887
7	Dovercourt Bay	9242
8	Dovercourt All Saints	9075
9	Dovercourt Tollgate	8068
10	Harwich & Kingsway (Worst)	5562

Is Harwich rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Harwich. 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	24669
2	Eastern Felixstowe	20758
3	Orwell & Villages	19883
4	Ganges	18318
5	Western Felixstowe	12629
6	Dovercourt Tollgate	12489
7	Dovercourt All Saints	12004
8	Dovercourt Vines & Parkeston	10729
9	Dovercourt Bay	9428
10	Harwich & Kingsway	2640

How affordable are the rents in Harwich?

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

Beds	Tendring	Essex
1	£595	£750
2	£750	£900
3	£900	£1150
4	£1238	£1500

How much can I earn in Harwich per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Mid Suffolk	£657.50
2	Ipswich	£642.00
3	East Suffolk	£633.80
4	Tendring (Harwich)	£612.40

So, is Harwich a nice place to live?

* Probably.