Is Taunton, Somerset a nice place to live?

Is Taunton a nice place to live or is Taunton rough? Forget local estate agents sales speil and local councillors who say that Taunton 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 Taunton truly a nice place to live, or are Bridgwater, North Petherton and Wellington a lot better? Time to find out.

What are the crime levels like in Taunton?

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 Taunton. 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
Halcon 163
Rowbarton 133
Taunton 120
Frieze Hill 76
Rowford 72
Roughmoor 39
Sherford 34
Holway 33
Bishop’s Hull 30
Dowslands 5

The English Indices of Deprivation also has crime statistics for Taunton. 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 Taunton and compared them. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst.

You least likely to be a victim of crime in the Manor & Tangier ward.

Ward Average rank in England
Manor & Tangier (Best) 23956/32845
Trull, Pitminster & Corfe 23071/32845
Wilton & Sherford 22856/32845
Vivary 15933/32845
Wellsprings & Rowbarton 14639/32845
Blackbrook & Holway 14600/32845
North Town 11083/32845
Halcon & Lane 8754/32845
Priorswood 8497/32845
Victoria (Worst) 6054/32845
Reader Opinion:

Bridgwater: like an open cesspit, the thickest sh*ts tend to accumulate here

Your Health in Taunton

If you are thinking of moving to Taunton, 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 Taunton compares to its neighbouring local authorities. People were asked to rate their current health from very bad to very good;

Town Very Bad Bad
East Devon 1.13% 3.99%
Sedgemoor 1.16% 4.36%
Mid Devon 0.96% 3.58%

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Taunton. 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 Taunton. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst;

Ward Average rank in England
Trull, Pitminster & Corfe (Best) 26949/32845
Wilton & Sherford 19680/32845
Manor & Tangier 17877/32845
North Town 15790/32845
Wellsprings & Rowbarton 15103/32845
Vivary 13109/32845
Blackbrook & Holway 12240/32845
Victoria 10942/32845
Priorswood 9621/32845
Halcon & Lane (Worst) 9524/32845
Reader Opinion:

Chard: The town where the garbage men make deliveries

Deprivation in Taunton

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 Taunton. 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
Wilton & Sherford (Best) 23293/32845
Manor & Tangier 22977/32845
Trull, Pitminster & Corfe 21641/32845
Vivary 17698/32845
North Town 17241/32845
Wellsprings & Rowbarton 16164/32845
Blackbrook & Holway 14425/32845
Victoria 12176/32845
Priorswood 9972/32845
Halcon & Lane (Worst) 8995/32845

Average rent in Taunton

Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These statistics for Taunton 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 Taunton.

Weekly Gross Pay and Hourly Pay in Taunton

If you are thinking of moving to Taunton, 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.

How grim is your Postcode?