Is Colchester, Essex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Colchester. 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 Colchester. 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	Wivenhoe	26510
2	Highwoods	21802
3	St Anne's and St John's	18739
4	Shrub End	18533
5	Mile End	16072
6	New Town and Christ Church	11623
7	Old Heath and The Hythe	10748
8	Berechurch	8599
9	Greenstead	8582
10	Castle	6095

Is Colchester a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Colchester, 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 Colchester 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	%
Colchester (Colchester)	4.18
Babergh	4.41
Ipswich	5.05
Tendring	7.77

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Colchester. 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 Colchester. 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	Wivenhoe (Best)	25471
2	Mile End	22134
3	New Town and Christ Church	17375
4	Castle	17325
5	Highwoods	15004
6	Old Heath and The Hythe	13991
7	Shrub End	13340
8	St Anne's and St John's	13332
9	Berechurch	11546
10	Greenstead (Worst)	10614

Is Colchester rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Colchester. 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	Wivenhoe	26637
2	Mile End	22330
3	Highwoods	19433
4	New Town and Christ Church	17477
5	St Anne's and St John's	17400
6	Castle	15603
7	Shrub End	14074
8	Old Heath and The Hythe	13494
9	Berechurch	10617
10	Greenstead	8999

How affordable are the rents in Colchester?

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

Beds	Colchester	Essex
1	£650	£750
2	£795	£900
3	£1000	£1150
4	£1350	£1500

How much can I earn in Colchester per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Colchester (Colchester)	£715.90
2	Ipswich	£642.00
3	Babergh	£635.20
4	Tendring	£612.40

So, is Colchester a nice place to live?

* Probably.