Is Ashbourne, Derbyshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Ashbourne. 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 Ashbourne. 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	Hulland	32591
2	Clifton and Bradley	32159
3	Brailsford	32065
4	Weaver	30872
5	Doveridge and Sudbury	29139
6	Ashbourne South	28304
7	Hamps Valley	27639
8	Abbey	27348
9	Norbury	26192
10	Ashbourne North	26000

Is Ashbourne a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Ashbourne, 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 Ashbourne 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	%
Derbyshire Dales (Ashbourne)	4.57
South Derbyshire	4.6
East Staffordshire	4.83
Amber Valley	5.63

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Ashbourne. 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 Ashbourne. 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	Norbury (Best)	30427
2	Hamps Valley	30393
3	Brailsford	29307
4	Hulland	28437
5	Abbey	25911
6	Clifton and Bradley	25531
7	Doveridge and Sudbury	24970
8	Weaver	24388
9	Ashbourne North	23771
10	Ashbourne South (Worst)	22474

Is Ashbourne rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Ashbourne. 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	Brailsford	25181
2	Hulland	25143
3	Ashbourne South	23951
4	Ashbourne North	22496
5	Clifton and Bradley	21495
6	Doveridge and Sudbury	21049
7	Abbey	19589
8	Weaver	19282
9	Hamps Valley	17293
10	Norbury	16723

How affordable are the rents in Ashbourne?

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

Beds	Derbyshire Dales	Derbyshire
1	£450	£450
2	£640	£575
3	£735	£650
4	£1100	£950

How much can I earn in Ashbourne per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Derbyshire Dales (Ashbourne)	£736.70
2	South Derbyshire	£706.90
3	East Staffordshire	£669.60
4	Amber Valley	£662.90

So, is Ashbourne a nice place to live?

Ashbourne has passed our core town assesment with a score of 4/5.  However, the rents in Ashbourne are more expensive than other parts of Derbyshire.

* Probably.