Is Rayleigh, Essex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Rayleigh. 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 Rayleigh. 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	Hockley	28993
2	Sweyne Park and Grange	28181
3	Lodge	28105
4	Trinity	27300
5	Downhall and Rawreth	26990
6	Cedar Hall	25217
7	Hullbridge	24771
8	St Peter's	22486
9	Victoria	21557
10	Wheatley	18335

Is Rayleigh a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Rayleigh, 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 Rayleigh 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	%
Rochford (Rayleigh)	4.24
Basildon	5.03
Castle Point	5.47
Southend-on-Sea	5.57

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Rayleigh. 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 Rayleigh. 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	Hockley (Best)	29502
2	Lodge	28795
3	Wheatley	28695
4	Trinity	28591
5	Downhall and Rawreth	28275
6	Sweyne Park and Grange	27778
7	Hullbridge	26638
8	St Peter's	22670
9	Victoria	21914
10	Cedar Hall (Worst)	21862

Is Rayleigh rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Rayleigh. 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	Hockley	29503
2	Trinity	28200
3	Lodge	26970
4	Wheatley	25949
5	Sweyne Park and Grange	25595
6	Downhall and Rawreth	25559
7	Hullbridge	24397
8	St Peter's	23895
9	Cedar Hall	22596
10	Victoria	20562

How affordable are the rents in Rayleigh?

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

Beds	Rochford	Essex
1	£685	£750
2	£925	£900
3	£1200	£1150
4	£1500	£1500

How much can I earn in Rayleigh per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Rochford (Rayleigh)	£827.60
2	Southend-on-Sea UA	£730.60
3	Basildon	£693.90
4	Castle Point	£681.00

So, is Rayleigh a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.