Is Buckfastleigh, Devon a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Buckfastleigh. 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 Buckfastleigh. 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	Ipplepen	31625
2	Haytor	31232
3	Dartington & Staverton	29550
4	Ermington & Ugborough	29281
5	Marldon & Littlehempston	28410
6	Ambrook	27869
7	South Brent	27051
8	Bradley	26002
9	Ashburton & Buckfastleigh	24340
10	Totnes	21208

Is Buckfastleigh a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Buckfastleigh, 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 Buckfastleigh 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 Hams	5
Teignbridge (Buckfastleigh)	5.42
Plymouth	6.42
Torbay	7.33

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Buckfastleigh. 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 Buckfastleigh. 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	Marldon & Littlehempston (Best)	27005
2	Ermington & Ugborough	26342
3	South Brent	25379
4	Haytor	25059
5	Dartington & Staverton	24735
6	Ashburton & Buckfastleigh	21643
7	Ipplepen	21491
8	Ambrook	20946
9	Bradley	19539
10	Totnes (Worst)	18104

Is Buckfastleigh rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Buckfastleigh. 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	Ipplepen	28016
2	Marldon & Littlehempston	23956
3	Haytor	23788
4	Ambrook	23352
5	Bradley	19093
6	Ermington & Ugborough	18334
7	South Brent	16955
8	Ashburton & Buckfastleigh	16767
9	Dartington & Staverton	15757
10	Totnes	15184

How affordable are the rents in Buckfastleigh?

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

Beds	Teignbridge	Devon
1	£548	£550
2	£695	£680
3	£850	£850
4	£1200	£1300

How much can I earn in Buckfastleigh per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	South Hams	£669.00
2	Plymouth UA	£620.50
3	Teignbridge (Buckfastleigh)	£597.50
4	Torbay UA	£574.90

So, is Buckfastleigh a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.