Is Croydon, Surrey a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Croydon. 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 Croydon. 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	Brockham, Betchworth and Buckland	25204
2	Reigate	23599
3	Horley East & Salfords	21797
4	Meadvale & St John's	21626
5	Redhill West & Wray Common	21122
6	Lower Kingswood, Tadworth & Walton	21103
7	South Park & Woodhatch	19600
8	Redhill East	19458
9	Earlswood & Whitebushes	18518
10	Horley West & Sidlow	18106

Is Croydon a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Croydon, 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 Croydon 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	%
Epsom and Ewell	3.06
Reigate and Banstead (Croydon)	3.4
Tandridge	3.77
Crawley	4.33

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Croydon. 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 Croydon. 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	Brockham, Betchworth and Buckland (Best)	28628
2	Reigate	28038
3	Horley East & Salfords	27223
4	Meadvale & St John's	26794
5	Lower Kingswood, Tadworth & Walton	24450
6	Earlswood & Whitebushes	24175
7	Redhill East	24121
8	Redhill West & Wray Common	22745
9	Horley West & Sidlow	22578
10	South Park & Woodhatch (Worst)	21217

Is Croydon rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Croydon. 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	Reigate	28578
2	Brockham, Betchworth and Buckland	27230
3	Meadvale & St John's	26798
4	Lower Kingswood, Tadworth & Walton	25851
5	Redhill East	25079
6	Earlswood & Whitebushes	24258
7	Horley East & Salfords	23951
8	Redhill West & Wray Common	23521
9	Horley West & Sidlow	21256
10	South Park & Woodhatch	20278

How affordable are the rents in Croydon?

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

Beds	Reigate and Banstead	Surrey
1	£875	£900
2	£1105	£1170
3	£1400	£1450
4	£2080	£2250

How much can I earn in Croydon per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Epsom and Ewell	£850.00
2	Reigate and Banstead (Croydon)	£800.00
3	Tandridge	£718.10
4	Crawley	£654.40

So, is Croydon a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.