Is Bexley, London a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Bexley. 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 Bexley. 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	Blendon & Penhill	23556
2	Blackfen & Lamorbey	23446
3	Crook Log	21970
4	Sidcup	18932
5	Joyden's Wood	18507
6	Barnehurst	17392
7	Bexleyheath	16609
8	St Mary's & St James	16199
9	Crayford	15070
10	Heath	14968

Is Bexley a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Bexley, 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 Bexley 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	%
Dartford	3.76
Bexley (Bexley)	4.33
Greenwich	4.6
Barking and Dagenham	4.87

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Bexley. 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 Bexley. 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	Blendon & Penhill (Best)	27401
2	Crook Log	26820
3	Joyden's Wood	26708
4	Blackfen & Lamorbey	26350
5	Heath	25669
6	Bexleyheath	24272
7	St Mary's & St James	23898
8	Sidcup	21706
9	Barnehurst	21378
10	Crayford (Worst)	21220

Is Bexley rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Bexley. 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	Joyden's Wood	27328
2	Heath	27252
3	Blendon & Penhill	26100
4	Blackfen & Lamorbey	25025
5	Crook Log	24852
6	St Mary's & St James	21762
7	Bexleyheath	21488
8	Sidcup	19384
9	Crayford	16272
10	Barnehurst	16213

How affordable are the rents in Bexley?

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, Bexley rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for Outer London.

Beds	Bexley	Outer London
1	£900	£1075
2	£1150	£1300
3	£1400	£1600
4	£1800	£2100

How much can I earn in Bexley per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Greenwich	£805.20
2	Bexley (Bexley)	£789.80
3	Dartford	£753.00
4	Barking and Dagenham	£674.50

So, is Bexley a nice place to live?

Bexley has passed our core town assesment with a score of 4/5.  However, Bexley does have a number of wards were crime is worse than the national average.

* Probably.