Is Hitchin, Hertfordshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Hitchin. 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 Hitchin. 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	Chesfield	26432
2	Hitchin Walsworth	26023
3	Hitchin Highbury	23183
4	Symonds Green	22928
5	Hitchin Priory	21567
6	Hitchin Bearton	19689
7	Cadwell	19623
8	Letchworth South West	18428
9	Letchworth Wilbury	17756
10	Hitchin Oughton	11498

Is Hitchin a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Hitchin, 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 Hitchin 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	%
Central Bedfordshire	3.82
North Hertfordshire (Hitchin)	3.86
Stevenage	4.68
Luton	4.74

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Hitchin. 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 Hitchin. 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	Hitchin Priory (Best)	29783
2	Cadwell	29246
3	Hitchin Highbury	28433
4	Hitchin Bearton	27801
5	Letchworth South West	25288
6	Chesfield	25262
7	Hitchin Walsworth	25021
8	Letchworth Wilbury	21225
9	Hitchin Oughton	19693
10	Symonds Green (Worst)	16699

Is Hitchin rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Hitchin. 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	Hitchin Priory	29829
2	Hitchin Highbury	29214
3	Hitchin Bearton	26882
4	Chesfield	25620
5	Hitchin Walsworth	25102
6	Letchworth South West	24500
7	Cadwell	20128
8	Letchworth Wilbury	17913
9	Hitchin Oughton	16285
10	Symonds Green	15631

How affordable are the rents in Hitchin?

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

Beds	North Hertfordshire	Hertfordshire
1	£750	£850
2	£950	£1100
3	£1200	£1350
4	£1550	£1850

How much can I earn in Hitchin per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	North Hertfordshire (Hitchin)	£824.70
2	Central Bedfordshire UA	£782.10
3	Stevenage	£665.40
4	Luton UA	£618.10

So, is Hitchin a nice place to live?

Hitchin has passed our core town assesment with flying colours with a score of 5/5. It doesn't get any better than that!

* Probably.