Is Watford a nice place to live or is Watford rough? Forget local estate agents sales speil and local councillors who say that Watford 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 Watford truly a nice place to live, or are Bushey, Elstree and Rickmansworth a lot better? Time to find out.
What are the crime levels like in Watford?
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 Watford. 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 |
|---|---|
| Watford | 144 |
| North Watford | 79 |
| Garston | 66 |
| Holywell | 59 |
| Watford Heath | 44 |
| Bushey | 23 |
| Aldenham | 14 |
| Fulwell | 13 |
| Patchetts Green | 13 |
| Round Bush | 7 |
The English Indices of Deprivation also has crime statistics for Watford. 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 Watford and compared them. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst.
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Oxhey (Best) | 17738/32845 |
| Nascot | 17104/32845 |
| Tudor | 16871/32845 |
| Park | 16655/32845 |
| Bushey St James | 15169/32845 |
| Holywell | 14587/32845 |
| Callowland | 14428/32845 |
| Vicarage | 13124/32845 |
| Bushey North | 13021/32845 |
| Central (Worst) | 6620/32845 |
South Oxhey, Watford
Your Health in Watford
If you are thinking of moving to Watford, 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 Watford compares to its neighbouring local authorities. People were asked to rate their current health from very bad to very good;
| Town | Very Bad | Bad |
|---|---|---|
| Hillingdon | 1.01% | 3.43% |
| Harrow | 1.1% | 3.47% |
| Watford (Watford) | 0.89% | 3.25% |
| Three Rivers | 0.84% | 3.06% |
The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Watford. 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 Watford. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst;
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Oxhey (Best) | 25202/32845 |
| Bushey St James | 24403/32845 |
| Bushey North | 23656/32845 |
| Park | 23114/32845 |
| Tudor | 22812/32845 |
| Nascot | 22804/32845 |
| Callowland | 21383/32845 |
| Vicarage | 20721/32845 |
| Central | 14808/32845 |
| Holywell (Worst) | 13362/32845 |
Mill End: inches from the cancerous smog of junction 17 on the M25
Deprivation in Watford
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 Watford. 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 |
|---|---|
| Nascot (Best) | 24195/32845 |
| Tudor | 23158/32845 |
| Oxhey | 23074/32845 |
| Bushey St James | 22737/32845 |
| Park | 22043/32845 |
| Bushey North | 21275/32845 |
| Vicarage | 17879/32845 |
| Callowland | 17380/32845 |
| Holywell | 12776/32845 |
| Central (Worst) | 11801/32845 |
Average rent in Watford
Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These statistics for Watford 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 Watford.
Weekly Gross Pay and Hourly Pay in Watford
If you are thinking of moving to Watford, 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.
