Is Swindon, Wiltshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Swindon. 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 Swindon. 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	St Margaret and South Marston	16160
2	Chiseldon and Lawn	14696
3	Old Town	13245
4	Mannington and Western	12854
5	Rodbourne Cheney	10561
6	Liden, Eldene and Park South	9927
7	Eastcott	5713
8	Gorse Hill and Pinehurst	5696
9	Central	4821
10	Walcot and Park North	3923

Is Swindon a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Swindon, 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 Swindon 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	%
Vale of White Horse	3.24
West Berkshire	3.35
Stroud	4.15
Swindon (Swindon)	4.45

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Swindon. 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 Swindon. 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	Chiseldon and Lawn (Best)	23985
2	Old Town	21717
3	St Margaret and South Marston	19878
4	Eastcott	16319
5	Central	14822
6	Mannington and Western	14663
7	Rodbourne Cheney	10893
8	Liden, Eldene and Park South	10833
9	Gorse Hill and Pinehurst	10148
10	Walcot and Park North (Worst)	7543

Is Swindon rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Swindon. 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	Chiseldon and Lawn	26266
2	Old Town	25476
3	St Margaret and South Marston	21832
4	Eastcott	18230
5	Mannington and Western	16525
6	Central	13478
7	Rodbourne Cheney	12228
8	Gorse Hill and Pinehurst	9988
9	Liden, Eldene and Park South	9941
10	Walcot and Park North	6550

How affordable are the rents in Swindon?

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

Beds	Swindon
1	£635	£
2	£750	£
3	£895	£
4	£1200	£

How much can I earn in Swindon per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	West Berkshire UA	£775.50
2	Vale of White Horse	£730.80
3	Swindon UA (Swindon)	£697.50
4	Stroud	£672.60

So, is Swindon a nice place to live?

* Probably.