Is Winchester, Hampshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Winchester. 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 Winchester. 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	St Barnabas	28537
2	The Worthys	28088
3	Colden Common and Twyford	27230
4	Wonston and Micheldever	26681
5	Badger Farm and Oliver's Battery	26299
6	Alresford and Itchen Valley	25763
7	St Paul	21660
8	St Luke	17643
9	St Michael	16573
10	St Bartholomew	15683

Is Winchester a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Winchester, 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 Winchester 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	%
Winchester (Winchester)	3.43
Eastleigh	3.79
Test Valley	3.85
Southampton	4.97

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Winchester. 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 Winchester. 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	Badger Farm and Oliver's Battery (Best)	31401
2	Alresford and Itchen Valley	30370
3	Wonston and Micheldever	29843
4	The Worthys	29423
5	Colden Common and Twyford	29358
6	St Paul	27810
7	St Barnabas	27528
8	St Michael	24051
9	St Bartholomew	20644
10	St Luke (Worst)	16118

Is Winchester rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Winchester. 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	Badger Farm and Oliver's Battery	31119
2	Colden Common and Twyford	30714
3	St Paul	29709
4	The Worthys	27481
5	St Barnabas	27294
6	Wonston and Micheldever	25781
7	Alresford and Itchen Valley	25380
8	St Michael	22407
9	St Bartholomew	18662
10	St Luke	15945

How affordable are the rents in Winchester?

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

Beds	Winchester	Hampshire
1	£795	£700
2	£925	£850
3	£1200	£1100
4	£1800	£1550

How much can I earn in Winchester per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Winchester (Winchester)	£789.40
2	Test Valley	£721.20
3	Eastleigh	£712.70
4	Southampton UA	£651.60

So, is Winchester a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.