Is Thame, Oxfordshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Thame. 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 Thame. 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	Long Crendon	31729
2	Oakley	31310
3	Haddenham & Stone	29440
4	Thame	28526
5	The Risboroughs	28163
6	Chinnor	28132
7	Waddesdon	27192
8	Watlington	21773
9	Haseley Brook	20864
10	Forest Hill & Holton	20112

Is Thame a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Thame, 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 Thame 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	%
South Oxfordshire (Thame)	3.25
Oxford	3.34
Cherwell	3.72

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Thame. 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 Thame. 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	Watlington (Best)	31968
2	Chinnor	31967
3	Thame	31118
4	Haseley Brook	31044
5	Oakley	30719
6	Forest Hill & Holton	30601
7	Long Crendon	28665
8	Haddenham & Stone	28312
9	The Risboroughs	27956
10	Waddesdon (Worst)	25174

Is Thame rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Thame. 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	Chinnor	28466
2	Long Crendon	28384
3	Thame	28248
4	Haddenham & Stone	28100
5	The Risboroughs	26129
6	Oakley	24956
7	Watlington	22486
8	Waddesdon	22353
9	Forest Hill & Holton	21665
10	Haseley Brook	20421

How affordable are the rents in Thame?

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

Beds	South Oxfordshire	Oxfordshire
1	£818	£850
2	£995	£1000
3	£1300	£1250
4	£1850	£1850

How much can I earn in Thame per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	South Oxfordshire (Thame)	£817.70
2	Oxford	£719.10
3	Cherwell	£690.90

So, is Thame a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.