Is Buntingford, Hertfordshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Buntingford. 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 Buntingford. 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	Mundens and Cottered	23756
2	Manor	23356
3	Puckeridge	22819
4	Braughing	22180
5	Watton-at-Stone	21409
6	Weston and Sandon	21279
7	Thundridge & Standon	20774
8	Buntingford	20045
9	Ermine	15069
10	Martins Wood	13455

Is Buntingford a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Buntingford, 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 Buntingford 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	%
East Hertfordshire (Buntingford)	3.31
Broxbourne	4.38
Stevenage	4.68
Harlow	5.09

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Buntingford. 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 Buntingford. 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	Thundridge & Standon (Best)	32392
2	Watton-at-Stone	32290
3	Buntingford	31669
4	Puckeridge	31516
5	Braughing	30712
6	Weston and Sandon	29915
7	Ermine	28557
8	Mundens and Cottered	27854
9	Manor	25265
10	Martins Wood (Worst)	17928

Is Buntingford rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Buntingford. 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	Watton-at-Stone	29591
2	Puckeridge	29013
3	Manor	26126
4	Buntingford	25127
5	Thundridge & Standon	23764
6	Ermine	23018
7	Braughing	22617
8	Weston and Sandon	19325
9	Mundens and Cottered	18298
10	Martins Wood	13517

How affordable are the rents in Buntingford?

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

Beds	East Hertfordshire	Hertfordshire
1	£825	£850
2	£1095	£1100
3	£1400	£1350
4	£1900	£1850

How much can I earn in Buntingford per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	East Hertfordshire (Buntingford)	£866.10
2	Broxbourne	£763.20
3	Stevenage	£665.40
4	Harlow	£646.30

So, is Buntingford a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.