Is Ongar, Essex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Ongar. 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 Ongar. 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	Tipps Cross	24713
2	Brizes and Doddinghurst	22816
3	Shenfield	18910
4	Moreton and Fyfield	17679
5	High Ongar, Willingale and The Rodings	16861
6	Chipping Ongar, Greensted and Marden Ash	15076
7	Pilgrims Hatch	14024
8	North Weald Bassett	13478
9	Shelley	12144
10	Passingford	5635

Is Ongar a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Ongar, 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 Ongar 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
Epping Forest (Ongar)	4.1
Havering	4.44
Harlow	5.09

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Ongar. 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 Ongar. 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	Shenfield (Best)	32261
2	Brizes and Doddinghurst	30710
3	Tipps Cross	30332
4	High Ongar, Willingale and The Rodings	28481
5	Chipping Ongar, Greensted and Marden Ash	27148
6	Moreton and Fyfield	26917
7	Passingford	26159
8	North Weald Bassett	24004
9	Shelley	23579
10	Pilgrims Hatch (Worst)	22507

Is Ongar rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Ongar. 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	Shenfield	32279
2	Tipps Cross	26985
3	Brizes and Doddinghurst	24180
4	Chipping Ongar, Greensted and Marden Ash	23521
5	Pilgrims Hatch	20658
6	North Weald Bassett	19947
7	High Ongar, Willingale and The Rodings	15214
8	Moreton and Fyfield	14571
9	Shelley	14036
10	Passingford	9468

How affordable are the rents in Ongar?

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, Ongar 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 Ongar per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Ongar, 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 Ongar'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	Epping Forest (Ongar)	£844.30
3	Havering	£781.90
4	Harlow	£646.30

So, is Ongar a nice place to live?

* Probably.