Is Royston, Hertfordshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Royston. 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 Royston. 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	Royston Heath	29827
2	Royston Meridian	26690
3	Royston Palace	24743
4	Melbourn	24114
5	Barrington	23392
6	Harston & Comberton	22186
7	Bassingbourn	21113
8	Foxton	21073
9	Buntingford	20045
10	Ermine	15069

Is Royston a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Royston, 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 Royston 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	%
Uttlesford	3.22
Cambridge	3.24
South Cambridgeshire	3.43
North Hertfordshire (Royston)	3.86

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Royston. 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 Royston. 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	Buntingford (Best)	31669
2	Foxton	31199
3	Harston & Comberton	30696
4	Barrington	30495
5	Royston Meridian	30186
6	Ermine	28557
7	Royston Heath	28287
8	Bassingbourn	24553
9	Royston Palace	23341
10	Melbourn (Worst)	23231

Is Royston rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Royston. 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	Royston Heath	30644
2	Royston Meridian	29530
3	Foxton	26349
4	Harston & Comberton	26327
5	Buntingford	25127
6	Barrington	24219
7	Royston Palace	23693
8	Ermine	23018
9	Melbourn	21367
10	Bassingbourn	19481

How affordable are the rents in Royston?

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, Royston 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 Royston per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Royston, 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 Royston'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 (Royston)	£824.70
2	South Cambridgeshire	£811.80
3	Uttlesford	£791.50
4	Cambridge	£780.30

So, is Royston a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.