Is Watlington, Oxfordshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Watlington. 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 Watlington. 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	Chinnor	28132
4	Woodcote & Rotherfield	27232
5	Hambleden Valley	25638
6	Wallingford	25634
7	Berinsfield	25596
8	Stokenchurch and Radnage	25350
9	Watlington	21773
10	Haseley Brook	20864

Is Watlington a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Watlington, 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 Watlington 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 (Watlington)	3.25
Reading	3.66

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Watlington. 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 Watlington. 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	Benson & Crowmarsh	31797
4	Woodcote & Rotherfield	31552
5	Haseley Brook	31044
6	Hambleden Valley	30894
7	Chalgrove	30682
8	Stokenchurch and Radnage	27617
9	Wallingford	27529
10	Berinsfield (Worst)	25431

Is Watlington rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Watlington. 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	Benson & Crowmarsh	29439
2	Chinnor	28466
3	Chalgrove	28268
4	Wallingford	26996
5	Woodcote & Rotherfield	26382
6	Stokenchurch and Radnage	25134
7	Watlington	22486
8	Berinsfield	20463
9	Haseley Brook	20421
10	Hambleden Valley	19451

How affordable are the rents in Watlington?

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, Watlington 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 Watlington per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Watlington, 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 Watlington'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 (Watlington)	£817.70
3	Reading UA	£728.30

So, is Watlington a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.