Is Reading a nice place to live or is Reading rough? Forget local estate agents sales speil and local councillors who say that Reading 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 Reading truly a nice place to live, or are Earley, Woodley and Henley on Thames a lot better? Time to find out.
What are the crime levels like in Reading?
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 Reading. 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 |
|---|---|
| Reading | 273 |
| Lower Caversham | 257 |
| Coley | 189 |
| Caversham | 133 |
| Foudry Brook | 105 |
| Caversham Heights | 75 |
| Emmer Green | 43 |
| Littlestead Green | 32 |
| Play Hatch | 15 |
| Dunsden Green | 9 |
The English Indices of Deprivation also has crime statistics for Reading. 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 Reading and compared them. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst.
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Thames (Best) | 28725/32845 |
| Bulmershe and Whitegates | 25954/32845 |
| Redlands | 17867/32845 |
| Park | 17723/32845 |
| Caversham | 14916/32845 |
| Minster | 13488/32845 |
| Church | 12720/32845 |
| Katesgrove | 12615/32845 |
| Battle | 7641/32845 |
| Abbey (Worst) | 6542/32845 |
Reading - it's the home of some great characters
Your Health in Reading
If you are thinking of moving to Reading, 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 Reading compares to its neighbouring local authorities. People were asked to rate their current health from very bad to very good;
| Town | Very Bad | Bad |
|---|---|---|
| Reading (Reading) | 0.81% | 2.95% |
| Windsor and Maidenhead | 0.75% | 2.68% |
| Wokingham | 0.61% | 2.14% |
| Bracknell Forest | 0.72% | 2.53% |
The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Reading. 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 Reading. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst;
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Bulmershe and Whitegates (Best) | 29862/32845 |
| Thames | 28134/32845 |
| Park | 19875/32845 |
| Redlands | 19112/32845 |
| Caversham | 18340/32845 |
| Battle | 14995/32845 |
| Katesgrove | 14062/32845 |
| Church | 12899/32845 |
| Abbey | 12058/32845 |
| Minster (Worst) | 11216/32845 |
Reading - what was a fairly nice university town is now a hell hole
Deprivation in Reading
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 Reading. 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 |
|---|---|
| Thames (Best) | 31405/32845 |
| Bulmershe and Whitegates | 24874/32845 |
| Redlands | 20929/32845 |
| Park | 19752/32845 |
| Caversham | 18899/32845 |
| Katesgrove | 13697/32845 |
| Minster | 13627/32845 |
| Battle | 12447/32845 |
| Abbey | 12363/32845 |
| Church (Worst) | 10924/32845 |
Average rent in Reading
Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These statistics for Reading 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 Reading.
Weekly Gross Pay and Hourly Pay in Reading
If you are thinking of moving to Reading, 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.
