Is Newbury, Berkshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Newbury. 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 Newbury. 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	Thatcham West	26919
2	Newbury Wash Common	26899
3	Chieveley & Cold Ash	25920
4	Hungerford & Kintbury	25275
5	Newbury Speen	24941
6	Thatcham North East	23796
7	Burghclere, Highclere and St Mary Bourne	21533
8	Newbury Clay Hill	20662
9	Newbury Greenham	19021
10	Newbury Central	18245

Is Newbury a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Newbury, 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 Newbury 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	%
Wokingham	2.65
West Berkshire (Newbury)	3.35
Reading	3.66
Test Valley	3.85

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Newbury. 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 Newbury. 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	Chieveley & Cold Ash (Best)	31354
2	Burghclere, Highclere and St Mary Bourne	29715
3	Hungerford & Kintbury	27752
4	Thatcham West	27220
5	Newbury Wash Common	27209
6	Newbury Speen	26500
7	Thatcham North East	24021
8	Newbury Clay Hill	23859
9	Newbury Central	22972
10	Newbury Greenham (Worst)	21955

Is Newbury rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Newbury. 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	Newbury Wash Common	27534
2	Chieveley & Cold Ash	27357
3	Thatcham West	26769
4	Thatcham North East	24348
5	Newbury Speen	24263
6	Hungerford & Kintbury	23709
7	Newbury Central	21298
8	Newbury Clay Hill	21182
9	Newbury Greenham	19690
10	Burghclere, Highclere and St Mary Bourne	18723

How affordable are the rents in Newbury?

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

Beds	West Berkshire
1	£750	£
2	£900	£
3	£1175	£
4	£1550	£

How much can I earn in Newbury per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Wokingham	£870.70
2	West Berkshire UA (Newbury)	£775.50
3	Reading UA	£728.30
4	Test Valley	£721.20

So, is Newbury a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.