Is Wallingford, Oxfordshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Wallingford. 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 Wallingford. 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	Benson & Crowmarsh	30643
2	Chalgrove	30527
3	Goring	30363
4	Didcot North East	28395
5	Woodcote & Rotherfield	27232
6	Cholsey	26683
7	Wallingford	25634
8	Berinsfield	25596
9	Sandford & the Wittenhams	20558
10	Didcot South	19322

Is Wallingford a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Wallingford, 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 Wallingford 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	%
Wokingham	2.65
South Oxfordshire (Wallingford)	3.25
Oxford	3.34
Reading	3.66

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Wallingford. 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 Wallingford. 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	Benson & Crowmarsh (Best)	31797
2	Woodcote & Rotherfield	31552
3	Goring	31500
4	Chalgrove	30682
5	Cholsey	30154
6	Didcot North East	29392
7	Wallingford	27529
8	Sandford & the Wittenhams	25936
9	Berinsfield	25431
10	Didcot South (Worst)	23913

Is Wallingford rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Wallingford. 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	Goring	31215
2	Benson & Crowmarsh	29439
3	Didcot North East	28347
4	Chalgrove	28268
5	Cholsey	28124
6	Wallingford	26996
7	Woodcote & Rotherfield	26382
8	Sandford & the Wittenhams	22218
9	Didcot South	21983
10	Berinsfield	20463

How affordable are the rents in Wallingford?

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, Wallingford 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 Wallingford per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Wokingham	£870.70
2	South Oxfordshire (Wallingford)	£817.70
3	Reading UA	£728.30
4	Oxford	£719.10

So, is Wallingford a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.