Is Burford, Oxfordshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Burford. 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 Burford. 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	Ascott and Shipton	32338
2	Milton-under-Wychwood	31159
3	Witney West	30907
4	Northleach	27755
5	Ducklington	27599
6	Carterton North East	27340
7	Carterton South	26316
8	Brize Norton and Shilton	26233
9	Carterton North West	25718
10	Burford	23152

Is Burford a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Burford, 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 Burford 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	%
Vale of White Horse	3.24
Oxford	3.34
West Oxfordshire (Burford)	3.57
Swindon	4.45

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Burford. 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 Burford. 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	Burford (Best)	31672
2	Ducklington	31007
3	Milton-under-Wychwood	30916
4	Ascott and Shipton	30570
5	Brize Norton and Shilton	29601
6	Northleach	29491
7	Witney West	28129
8	Carterton North East	27280
9	Carterton South	27003
10	Carterton North West (Worst)	25279

Is Burford rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Burford. 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	Ascott and Shipton	30634
2	Carterton North East	28666
3	Milton-under-Wychwood	28496
4	Witney West	28451
5	Carterton South	28282
6	Burford	25924
7	Ducklington	25532
8	Brize Norton and Shilton	25059
9	Carterton North West	23984
10	Northleach	23779

How affordable are the rents in Burford?

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

Beds	West Oxfordshire	Oxfordshire
1	£775	£850
2	£900	£1000
3	£1200	£1250
4	£1595	£1850

How much can I earn in Burford per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Vale of White Horse	£730.80
2	Oxford	£719.10
3	Swindon UA	£697.50
4	West Oxfordshire (Burford)	£688.40

So, is Burford a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.