Is Thaxted, Essex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Thaxted. 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 Thaxted. 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	Debden & Wimbish	30826
2	Stort Valley	27735
3	The Sampfords	26669
4	Flitch Green & Little Dunmow	26250
5	Thaxted & the Eastons	24826
6	Elsenham & Henham	23875
7	Yeldham	22928
8	Great Dunmow North	22815
9	Great Dunmow South & Barnston	21907
10	Takeley	20785

Is Thaxted a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Thaxted, 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 Thaxted 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 (Thaxted)	3.22
Epping Forest	4.1
Braintree	4.44
Harlow	5.09

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Thaxted. 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 Thaxted. 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	Debden & Wimbish (Best)	32431
2	The Sampfords	31764
3	Elsenham & Henham	31693
4	Flitch Green & Little Dunmow	31368
5	Stort Valley	31289
6	Thaxted & the Eastons	30318
7	Takeley	29935
8	Great Dunmow North	28005
9	Great Dunmow South & Barnston	27855
10	Yeldham (Worst)	25175

Is Thaxted rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Thaxted. 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	Elsenham & Henham	30274
2	Debden & Wimbish	29390
3	Flitch Green & Little Dunmow	27660
4	Stort Valley	25382
5	Great Dunmow South & Barnston	23698
6	Great Dunmow North	23414
7	Takeley	22918
8	The Sampfords	22758
9	Thaxted & the Eastons	22080
10	Yeldham	18465

How affordable are the rents in Thaxted?

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

Beds	Uttlesford	Essex
1	£750	£750
2	£925	£900
3	£1200	£1150
4	£1450	£1500

How much can I earn in Thaxted per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Epping Forest	£844.30
2	Uttlesford (Thaxted)	£791.50
3	Braintree	£695.20
4	Harlow	£646.30

So, is Thaxted a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.