Is Hereford, Herefordshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Hereford. 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 9 wards nearest to the centre of Hereford. To pass this section, 7 out of 9 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5

#	Ward	Crime Rank
1	Eign Hill	26289
2	Aylestone Hill	24528
3	College	22784
4	Whitecross	21530
5	Widemarsh	18838
6	Greyfriars	17671
7	Saxon Gate	16558
8	Central	12519
9	Hinton & Hunderton	11857

Is Hereford a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Hereford, 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 Hereford 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	%
Tewkesbury	3.93
Herefordshire, County of (Hereford)	5.25
Forest of Dean	5.46
Monmouthshire	5.65

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Hereford. 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 9 wards nearest to the centre of Hereford. To pass this section, 7 out of 9 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5.

#	Ward	Health Rank
1	Eign Hill (Best)	22806
2	Aylestone Hill	22430
3	Greyfriars	18423
4	College	16791
5	Central	16079
6	Whitecross	15970
7	Saxon Gate	14007
8	Widemarsh	13141
9	Hinton & Hunderton	9739

Is Hereford rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 9 wards in and around Hereford. 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, 7 out of 9 wards must have a ranking higher than the English average of 16422.5

#	Ward	Deprivation Rank
1	Eign Hill	26730
2	Aylestone Hill	23175
3	College	19034
4	Greyfriars	18463
5	Whitecross	18417
6	Central	13218
7	Widemarsh	12750
8	Saxon Gate	11864
9	Hinton & Hunderton	7921

How affordable are the rents in Hereford?

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

Beds	Herefordshire, County of
1	£475	£
2	£625	£
3	£760	£
4	£1050	£

How much can I earn in Hereford per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Forest of Dean	£724.40
2	Monmouthshire / Sir Fynwy	£695.30
3	Tewkesbury	£651.00
4	Herefordshire UA (Hereford)	£616.20

So, is Hereford a nice place to live?

* Probably.