So you're asking yourself the question 'is Bedford a nice place to live?'' You've found some estate agents and they have told you what you wanted to hear. You've read some speil by a local councillor who says that Bedford is on the up an up? Now it's time for a bit of reality. Cold hard statistics culled from the Police, the Indices of Deprivation and the latest census. Is Bedford truly a nice place to live, or are Kempston, Sandy and Wixams a lot better? Time to find out.
Crime in Bedford
Using the latest Police street crime figures for the month of February 2021 we have compiled a table of the most voilent Policing areas in and around Bedford. 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 |
|---|---|
| Castle | 193 |
| Bedford | 167 |
| South End | 84 |
| Kempston | 72 |
| Fenlake | 70 |
| Salph End | 62 |
| Brickhill | 43 |
| Harrowden | 37 |
| Biddenham | 22 |
| Clapham Green | 8 |
The English Indices of Deprivation also has crime statistics for Bedford. These statitics 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 collated an average rank for all the Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA) in each ward in and around Bedford. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst.
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Bromham and Biddenham (Best) | 26778/32845 |
| Brickhill | 21944/32845 |
| De Parys | 17629/32845 |
| Kempston Central and East | 15656/32845 |
| Newnham | 15530/32845 |
| Kempston North | 13568/32845 |
| Queens Park | 12008/32845 |
| Harpur | 10825/32845 |
| Cauldwell | 9934/32845 |
| Castle (Worst) | 8840/32845 |
Bedford - get ready for the nice smell of strong urine
Your Health in Bedford
If you are thinking of moving to Bedford, 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 Bedford compares to its neighbouring local authorities. People were asked to rate their current health from very bad to very good;
| Town | Very Bad | Bad |
|---|---|---|
| Milton Keynes | 0.94% | 3.2% |
| Bedford (Bedford) | 0.98% | 3.55% |
| Huntingdonshire | 0.85% | 3.09% |
| South Northamptonshire | 0.77% | 2.64% |
The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Bedford. 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 Bedford. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst;
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Bromham and Biddenham (Best) | 25874/32845 |
| Newnham | 20047/32845 |
| De Parys | 18083/32845 |
| Brickhill | 18055/32845 |
| Castle | 14780/32845 |
| Kempston North | 14073/32845 |
| Kempston Central and East | 13719/32845 |
| Queens Park | 13132/32845 |
| Cauldwell | 11231/32845 |
| Harpur (Worst) | 8397/32845 |
Bedford and Kempston "Your Papers Please!!"
Deprivation in Bedford
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 Bedford. 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 |
|---|---|
| Bromham and Biddenham (Best) | 28733/32845 |
| Brickhill | 21487/32845 |
| De Parys | 20916/32845 |
| Newnham | 20718/32845 |
| Castle | 13294/32845 |
| Kempston Central and East | 13121/32845 |
| Kempston North | 12967/32845 |
| Harpur | 9936/32845 |
| Queens Park | 9106/32845 |
| Cauldwell (Worst) | 8462/32845 |
Average rent in Bedford
Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These statistics for Bedford 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 Bedford.
Weekly Gross Pay and Hourly Pay in Bedford
If you are thinking of moving to Bedford, 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.
