Is Wantage, Oxfordshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Wantage. 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 Wantage. 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	Drayton	30962
2	Kingston Bagpuize	30230
3	Blewbury & Harwell	29231
4	Ridgeway	28757
5	Hendreds	28254
6	Downlands	28215
7	Steventon & the Hanneys	27098
8	Grove North	26344
9	Wantage & Grove Brook	24788
10	Wantage Charlton	20997

Is Wantage a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Wantage, 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 Wantage 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	%
Vale of White Horse (Wantage)	3.24
Oxford	3.34
West Berkshire	3.35
Swindon	4.45

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Wantage. 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 Wantage. 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	Kingston Bagpuize (Best)	32416
2	Drayton	30518
3	Downlands	29973
4	Grove North	29950
5	Wantage & Grove Brook	29263
6	Ridgeway	29118
7	Blewbury & Harwell	28731
8	Steventon & the Hanneys	28720
9	Hendreds	28108
10	Wantage Charlton (Worst)	27137

Is Wantage rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Wantage. 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	Drayton	29686
2	Wantage & Grove Brook	27343
3	Wantage Charlton	27242
4	Grove North	27102
5	Kingston Bagpuize	26786
6	Blewbury & Harwell	26322
7	Hendreds	23995
8	Steventon & the Hanneys	23064
9	Ridgeway	22134
10	Downlands	21201

How affordable are the rents in Wantage?

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

Beds	Vale of White Horse	Oxfordshire
1	£775	£850
2	£950	£1000
3	£1150	£1250
4	£1650	£1850

How much can I earn in Wantage per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	West Berkshire UA	£775.50
2	Vale of White Horse (Wantage)	£730.80
3	Oxford	£719.10
4	Swindon UA	£697.50

So, is Wantage a nice place to live?

Wantage has passed our core town assesment with flying colours with a score of 5/5. It doesn't get any better than that!

* Probably.