Is Witham, Essex a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Witham. 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 Witham. 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	Great Totham	29978
2	Wickham Bishops and Woodham	25195
3	Kelvedon & Feering	24877
4	Hatfield Peverel & Terling	24373
5	Tiptree	18679
6	Witham South	15964
7	Silver End & Cressing	13891
8	Witham West	13845
9	Witham Central	13801
10	Witham North	11859

Is Witham a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Witham, 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 Witham 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	%
Chelmsford	3.59
Colchester	4.18
Rochford	4.24
Braintree (Witham)	4.44

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Witham. 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 Witham. 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	Great Totham (Best)	29118
2	Wickham Bishops and Woodham	27302
3	Kelvedon & Feering	24201
4	Hatfield Peverel & Terling	23045
5	Tiptree	22583
6	Silver End & Cressing	21091
7	Witham South	19970
8	Witham West	17528
9	Witham Central	16656
10	Witham North (Worst)	15919

Is Witham rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Witham. 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	Great Totham	26311
2	Kelvedon & Feering	25954
3	Wickham Bishops and Woodham	25245
4	Tiptree	23042
5	Hatfield Peverel & Terling	23022
6	Witham South	20945
7	Witham Central	18536
8	Silver End & Cressing	17189
9	Witham West	16212
10	Witham North	15570

How affordable are the rents in Witham?

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

Beds	Braintree	Essex
1	£675	£750
2	£810	£900
3	£1025	£1150
4	£1400	£1500

How much can I earn in Witham per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Rochford	£827.60
2	Colchester	£715.90
3	Braintree (Witham)	£695.20
4	Chelmsford	£682.80

So, is Witham a nice place to live?

Witham has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, Witham does have a number of wards were crime is worse than the national average.

* Probably.