Is Hertford, Hertfordshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Hertford. 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 Hertford. 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	Ware St Mary's	26311
2	Great Amwell	24141
3	Ware Chadwell	22422
4	Ware Trinity	21845
5	Hertford Bengeo	21687
6	Ware Christchurch	20612
7	Panshanger	19358
8	Hertford Kingsmead	17336
9	Hertford Castle	17074
10	Hertford Sele	15046

Is Hertford a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Hertford, 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 Hertford 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 (Hertford)	3.31
Welwyn Hatfield	3.85
Broxbourne	4.38
Stevenage	4.68

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Hertford. 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 Hertford. 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	Ware St Mary's (Best)	31103
2	Ware Chadwell	30639
3	Hertford Kingsmead	30545
4	Hertford Bengeo	30032
5	Hertford Castle	29408
6	Great Amwell	29264
7	Ware Christchurch	28053
8	Ware Trinity	26564
9	Hertford Sele	23721
10	Panshanger (Worst)	19980

Is Hertford rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Hertford. 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	Ware Chadwell	29561
2	Hertford Kingsmead	29021
3	Ware St Mary's	28972
4	Hertford Bengeo	28490
5	Hertford Castle	26277
6	Ware Christchurch	25776
7	Great Amwell	24348
8	Ware Trinity	23971
9	Hertford Sele	20545
10	Panshanger	20543

How affordable are the rents in Hertford?

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, Hertford 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 Hertford per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Hertford, 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 Hertford'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 (Hertford)	£866.10
2	Broxbourne	£763.20
3	Welwyn Hatfield	£756.30
4	Stevenage	£665.40

So, is Hertford a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.