Is Grays, Essex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Grays. 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 Grays. 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	Chafford and North Stifford	23516
2	South Chafford	22254
3	Little Thurrock Rectory	17140
4	Stifford Clays	16361
5	Grays Thurrock	14762
6	Little Thurrock Blackshots	13110
7	West Thurrock and South Stifford	9150
8	Tilbury Riverside and Thurrock Park	8753
9	Grays Riverside	8573
10	Tilbury St Chads	5444

Is Grays a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Grays, 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 Grays 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	%
Dartford	3.76
Bexley	4.33
Thurrock (Grays)	4.34
Gravesham	4.84

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Grays. 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 Grays. 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	South Chafford (Best)	27140
2	Chafford and North Stifford	25508
3	Little Thurrock Rectory	24653
4	Little Thurrock Blackshots	21506
5	Grays Riverside	19120
6	West Thurrock and South Stifford	18880
7	Grays Thurrock	17886
8	Stifford Clays	16765
9	Tilbury Riverside and Thurrock Park	13867
10	Tilbury St Chads (Worst)	10705

Is Grays rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Grays. 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	South Chafford	27515
2	Chafford and North Stifford	25246
3	Little Thurrock Rectory	23408
4	Little Thurrock Blackshots	18395
5	Stifford Clays	16109
6	Grays Thurrock	15409
7	Grays Riverside	13618
8	West Thurrock and South Stifford	11894
9	Tilbury Riverside and Thurrock Park	7198
10	Tilbury St Chads	5253

How affordable are the rents in Grays?

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

Beds	Thurrock
1	£750	£
2	£934	£
3	£1200	£
4	£1500	£

How much can I earn in Grays per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Bexley	£789.80
2	Gravesham	£755.40
3	Dartford	£753.00
4	Thurrock UA (Grays)	£711.90

So, is Grays a nice place to live?

* Probably.