Is Dereham, Norfolk a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Dereham. 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 Dereham. 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	Necton	29204
2	Upper Wensum	28934
3	Mattishall	28655
4	Lincoln	27816
5	Hermitage	27815
6	Dereham Toftwood	27642
7	Shipdham-with-Scarning	27576
8	Launditch	26666
9	Dereham Neatherd	16516
10	Dereham Withburga	15463

Is Dereham a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Dereham, 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 Dereham 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	%
Broadland	4.59
Breckland (Dereham)	5.46
Norwich	5.64
North Norfolk	6.03

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Dereham. 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 Dereham. 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	Hermitage (Best)	21307
2	Mattishall	20412
3	Upper Wensum	20385
4	Lincoln	20361
5	Shipdham-with-Scarning	19526
6	Dereham Toftwood	17617
7	Launditch	16462
8	Dereham Neatherd	13225
9	Necton	13205
10	Dereham Withburga (Worst)	12487

Is Dereham rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Dereham. 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	Dereham Toftwood	20827
2	Shipdham-with-Scarning	17541
3	Mattishall	17513
4	Lincoln	17455
5	Upper Wensum	17178
6	Hermitage	16463
7	Necton	14238
8	Dereham Neatherd	13524
9	Dereham Withburga	12620
10	Launditch	12546

How affordable are the rents in Dereham?

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

Beds	Breckland	Norfolk
1	£530	£535
2	£650	£650
3	£800	£775
4	£1180	£1195

How much can I earn in Dereham per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Broadland	£676.50
2	Norwich	£648.50
3	Breckland (Dereham)	£629.30
4	North Norfolk	£583.60

So, is Dereham a nice place to live?

* Probably.