Is Harpenden a nice place to live or is Harpenden rough? Forget local estate agents sales speil and local councillors who say that Harpenden is on the up an up, it's time for a bit of reality. Cold hard statistics culled from the Police, the Indices of Deprivation and the latest census. Is Harpenden truly a nice place to live, or are Luton, Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City a lot better? Time to find out.
What are the crime levels like in Harpenden?
Using the latest Police street crime figures (typically from 3 months ago) we have compiled a table of the most voilent Policing areas in and around Harpenden. Naturally the more urban and more central areas will have a higher rate of crime, but often you can be surprised when that is not the case and that is the area you want to move to.| Policing Area | Voilent Crimes |
|---|---|
| Batford | 21 |
| Lea Valley | 14 |
| Cold Harbour | 13 |
| Bower Heath | 13 |
| Harpenden | 12 |
| Lea (Lee) | 11 |
| Harpenden Common | 10 |
| Leasey Bridge | 7 |
| The Folly | 7 |
| Hatching Green | 2 |
The English Indices of Deprivation also has crime statistics for Harpenden. These statistics are published by the government every 2-3 years. 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. We've taken the rank average for wards in and around Harpenden and compared them. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst.
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Harpenden South (Best) | 29772/32845 |
| Kimpton | 28751/32845 |
| Harpenden North | 26085/32845 |
| Marshalswick South | 25272/32845 |
| Wheathampstead | 23275/32845 |
| Harpenden East | 23021/32845 |
| Harpenden West | 22764/32845 |
| Sandridge | 21869/32845 |
| Codicote | 21642/32845 |
| Batchwood (Worst) | 12845/32845 |
Luton - England's Toilet
Your Health in Harpenden
If you are thinking of moving to Harpenden, you want to know if the place is likely to put you on a downward spiral of ill health. We've taken the healh question from the latest census to find out and how Harpenden compares to its neighbouring local authorities. People were asked to rate their current health from very bad to very good;
| Town | Very Bad | Bad |
|---|---|---|
| Central Bedfordshire | 0.84% | 3.02% |
| Dacorum | 0.87% | 3.16% |
| North Hertfordshire | 0.81% | 3.11% |
The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Harpenden. 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 rank for all the Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA) in each ward in and around Harpenden. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst;
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Harpenden West (Best) | 32425/32845 |
| Marshalswick South | 32241/32845 |
| Harpenden North | 31796/32845 |
| Harpenden South | 31724/32845 |
| Kimpton | 30995/32845 |
| Sandridge | 30742/32845 |
| Wheathampstead | 30650/32845 |
| Harpenden East | 29242/32845 |
| Codicote | 26507/32845 |
| Batchwood (Worst) | 24921/32845 |
Bedford - billed to be the Garden of Eden, but ended up like Stalinist Russia!
Deprivation in Harpenden
Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average Index of Multiple Deprivation rank of all the LSOAs in the wards in and around Harpenden. 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.
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Harpenden West (Best) | 31975/32845 |
| Marshalswick South | 31491/32845 |
| Harpenden South | 31090/32845 |
| Harpenden North | 30844/32845 |
| Kimpton | 29770/32845 |
| Sandridge | 28775/32845 |
| Harpenden East | 27710/32845 |
| Codicote | 26797/32845 |
| Wheathampstead | 26750/32845 |
| Batchwood (Worst) | 20101/32845 |
Average rent in Harpenden
Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These statistics for Harpenden are dated September 2021. They are split into three figures, the lower quartile, mean and upper quartile. If you recieve housing benefit or the housing benefit section of Universal Credit, the lower quartile is at the top limit of what would be affordable. The mean is the average you'd expect to pay for a rental property and the upper quartile is the average rental cost of the most expensive 25% of properties in Harpenden.
Weekly Gross Pay and Hourly Pay in Harpenden
If you are thinking of moving to Harpenden, you'll want to know how much you can earn in a job in the town. The government publish regular statistics on gross weekly pay and pay per hour.
