Is Witney, Oxfordshire a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Witney. 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 Witney. 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	Witney West	30907
2	North Leigh	30897
3	Witney East	30502
4	Eynsham and Cassington	29888
5	Witney North	29538
6	Hailey, Minster Lovell and Leafield	28175
7	Ducklington	27599
8	Brize Norton and Shilton	26233
9	Witney Central	24533
10	Witney South	22567

Is Witney a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Witney, 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 Witney 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	%
Vale of White Horse	3.24
Oxford	3.34
West Berkshire	3.35
West Oxfordshire (Witney)	3.57

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Witney. 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 Witney. 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	Ducklington (Best)	31007
2	Brize Norton and Shilton	29601
3	Hailey, Minster Lovell and Leafield	29491
4	North Leigh	28278
5	Witney West	28129
6	Witney North	27495
7	Witney East	26799
8	Eynsham and Cassington	25306
9	Witney Central	24533
10	Witney South (Worst)	24087

Is Witney rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Witney. 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	North Leigh	29206
2	Witney West	28451
3	Hailey, Minster Lovell and Leafield	27426
4	Witney East	26531
5	Witney North	25858
6	Eynsham and Cassington	25700
7	Ducklington	25532
8	Brize Norton and Shilton	25059
9	Witney South	23812
10	Witney Central	20977

How affordable are the rents in Witney?

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

Beds	West Oxfordshire	Oxfordshire
1	£775	£850
2	£900	£1000
3	£1200	£1250
4	£1595	£1850

How much can I earn in Witney per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	West Berkshire UA	£775.50
2	Vale of White Horse	£730.80
3	Oxford	£719.10
4	West Oxfordshire (Witney)	£688.40

So, is Witney a nice place to live?

Witney has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, the rents in Witney are more expensive than other parts of Oxfordshire.

* Probably.