Is Wickford, Essex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Wickford. 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 Wickford. 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	Downhall and Rawreth	26990
2	St George's	24037
3	Wickford North	20258
4	Wickford Park	18063
5	Wickford Castledon	14702
6	Rettendon and Runwell	12251
7	Crouch	11317
8	Fryerns	7830
9	Pitsea North West	5091
10	Pitsea South East	1893

Is Wickford a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Wickford, 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 Wickford 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	%
Brentwood	3.77
Rochford	4.24
Basildon (Wickford)	5.03
Castle Point	5.47

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Wickford. 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 Wickford. 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	Downhall and Rawreth (Best)	28275
2	Rettendon and Runwell	27061
3	St George's	25169
4	Wickford Park	23740
5	Wickford Castledon	22060
6	Crouch	21794
7	Wickford North	20996
8	Fryerns	12108
9	Pitsea North West	9364
10	Pitsea South East (Worst)	8360

Is Wickford rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Wickford. 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	Downhall and Rawreth	25559
2	St George's	24789
3	Wickford Park	21617
4	Wickford Castledon	21115
5	Wickford North	21042
6	Rettendon and Runwell	18068
7	Crouch	15689
8	Fryerns	7972
9	Pitsea North West	6099
10	Pitsea South East	5976

How affordable are the rents in Wickford?

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

Beds	Basildon	Essex
1	£775	£750
2	£975	£900
3	£1200	£1150
4	£1550	£1500

How much can I earn in Wickford per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Brentwood	£941.40
2	Rochford	£827.60
3	Basildon (Wickford)	£693.90
4	Castle Point	£681.00

So, is Wickford a nice place to live?

* Probably.