Is Biggleswade, Bedfordshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Biggleswade. 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 Biggleswade. 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	Stotfold and Langford	27586
2	Gamlingay	26834
3	Arlesey	25900
4	The Mordens	23971
5	Northill	23298
6	Arbury	22245
7	Biggleswade South	21731
8	Shefford	21682
9	Sandy	21376
10	Biggleswade North	20499

Is Biggleswade a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Biggleswade, 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 Biggleswade 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	%
South Cambridgeshire	3.43
Central Bedfordshire (Biggleswade)	3.82
Huntingdonshire	4.23
Bedford	4.37

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Biggleswade. 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 Biggleswade. 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	Arbury (Best)	30164
2	Stotfold and Langford	29936
3	Gamlingay	29137
4	Northill	28050
5	Arlesey	27383
6	The Mordens	25856
7	Shefford	25284
8	Sandy	22708
9	Biggleswade South	22658
10	Biggleswade North (Worst)	21506

Is Biggleswade rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Biggleswade. 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	Stotfold and Langford	28887
2	Arbury	26995
3	Arlesey	26766
4	Shefford	25376
5	Gamlingay	24599
6	Biggleswade South	22509
7	Sandy	20946
8	Northill	20357
9	Biggleswade North	19978
10	The Mordens	17166

How affordable are the rents in Biggleswade?

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

Beds	Central Bedfordshire
1	£675	£
2	£850	£
3	£1100	£
4	£1425	£

How much can I earn in Biggleswade per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	South Cambridgeshire	£811.80
2	Central Bedfordshire UA (Biggleswade)	£782.10
3	Bedford UA	£707.70
4	Huntingdonshire	£705.60

So, is Biggleswade a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.