Is Bampton, Devon a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Bampton. 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 Bampton. 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	Clare and Shuttern	31512
2	Lower Culm	29390
3	Canonsleigh	27626
4	Wiveliscombe & District	27034
5	Halberton	26565
6	Dulverton & District	25744
7	Cranmore	25027
8	Lowman	24650
9	Westexe	22043
10	Castle	18296

Is Bampton a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Bampton, 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 Bampton 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	%
Exeter	4.6
Mid Devon (Bampton)	4.77
Somerset West and Taunton	5.2
North Devon	5.69

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Bampton. 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 Bampton. 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	Halberton (Best)	29104
2	Clare and Shuttern	27933
3	Lower Culm	27801
4	Canonsleigh	27291
5	Castle	24463
6	Lowman	23913
7	Cranmore	23666
8	Wiveliscombe & District	23136
9	Dulverton & District	17220
10	Westexe (Worst)	17198

Is Bampton rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Bampton. 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	Lower Culm	23230
2	Halberton	18037
3	Cranmore	16628
4	Wiveliscombe & District	16427
5	Castle	16163
6	Canonsleigh	15765
7	Lowman	15723
8	Clare and Shuttern	14266
9	Westexe	12149
10	Dulverton & District	9476

How affordable are the rents in Bampton?

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

Beds	Mid Devon	Devon
1	£515	£550
2	£650	£680
3	£795	£850
4	£1038	£1300

How much can I earn in Bampton per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Exeter	£657.20
2	Mid Devon (Bampton)	£636.90
3	North Devon	£590.30

So, is Bampton a nice place to live?

Bampton has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, Bampton does more pockets of deprivation than the average town.  However, the rents in Bampton are more expensive than other parts of Devon.

* Probably.