Is Bideford, Devon a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Bideford. 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 9 wards nearest to the centre of Bideford. To pass this section, 7 out of 9 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5

#	Ward	Crime Rank
1	Fremington	31241
2	Appledore	28454
3	Northam	27919
4	Instow	26810
5	Great Torrington	26797
6	Westward Ho!	23889
7	Bideford West	23254
8	Bideford East	23090
9	Bideford North	17504

Is Bideford a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Bideford, 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 Bideford 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	%
West Devon	5.35
North Devon	5.69
Torridge (Bideford)	6.01
Cornwall	6.19

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Bideford. 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 9 wards nearest to the centre of Bideford. To pass this section, 7 out of 9 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5.

#	Ward	Health Rank
1	Instow (Best)	19523
2	Great Torrington	16538
3	Fremington	14334
4	Northam	13792
5	Bideford East	11763
6	Bideford West	11260
7	Westward Ho!	10972
8	Appledore	10276
9	Bideford North	9583

Is Bideford rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 9 wards in and around Bideford. 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, 7 out of 9 wards must have a ranking higher than the English average of 16422.5

#	Ward	Deprivation Rank
1	Fremington	22653
2	Great Torrington	17976
3	Northam	17395
4	Instow	15346
5	Appledore	14902
6	Westward Ho!	13608
7	Bideford West	12395
8	Bideford North	11225
9	Bideford East	10696

How affordable are the rents in Bideford?

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

Beds	Torridge	Devon
1	£450	£550
2	£585	£680
3	£700	£850
4	£950	£1300

How much can I earn in Bideford per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Cornwall UA	£631.10
2	Torridge (Bideford)	£619.60
3	West Devon	£599.00
4	North Devon	£590.30

So, is Bideford a nice place to live?

Bideford has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, Bideford does more pockets of deprivation than the average town.

* Probably.