Is Luton, Bedfordshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Luton. 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 Luton. 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	Harpenden North	26085
2	Wigmore	19505
3	Caddington	17104
4	Dallow	12247
5	Biscot	11441
6	Round Green	9311
7	High Town	7952
8	Farley	6879
9	Crawley	6582
10	South	5546

Is Luton a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Luton, 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 Luton 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 (Luton)	3.82
North Hertfordshire	3.86
Dacorum	3.89
Luton	4.74

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Luton. 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 Luton. 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	Harpenden North (Best)	31796
2	Caddington	22756
3	Wigmore	16541
4	Round Green	15672
5	Crawley	13530
6	High Town	12046
7	Dallow	11120
8	South	10102
9	Biscot	9724
10	Farley (Worst)	7254

Is Luton rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Luton. 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	Harpenden North	30844
2	Caddington	20083
3	Wigmore	19316
4	Crawley	13615
5	Round Green	13510
6	High Town	10107
7	South	8235
8	Dallow	7514
9	Biscot	6980
10	Farley	6155

How affordable are the rents in Luton?

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

Beds	Central Bedfordshire
1	£675	£
2	£850	£
3	£1100	£
4	£1425	£

How much can I earn in Luton per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Luton, 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 Luton'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	£824.70
2	Central Bedfordshire UA (Luton)	£782.10
3	Dacorum	£759.10
4	Luton UA	£618.10

So, is Luton a nice place to live?

* Probably.