North Abingdon is the seventh-best place to live in the country, a national survey has revealed.
A survey conducted by The Daily Telegraph ranked more than 7,000 districts in England and Wales based on the income of residents, economic activity, homeownership, crime and health.
And the area of north Abingdon that includes Dunmore and Peachcroft came seventh in the rankings as it scored highly in all five categories, including recording the ninth-best crime rate.
Mayor of Abingdon Angela Lawrence was pleased with the news and said: “It’s great that we’re recognised in this way.
“Having PCSOs (police community support officers) visible gives people a feeling of safety, and this is an area where we’ve got fairly high employment and people on a comfortable income, which affects education and health.
“Abingdon is a very nice place to live, and just being a very nice place makes people happy.”
Sandy Lovatt, leader of Abingdon Town Council and county councillor for north Abingdon, thought that the ranking was “a fair assessment”.
He added: “I think Abingdon is a wonderful place to live in, whether it’s north, south, east or west.
“We’ve got excellent primary schools in north Abingdon, and our secondary schools have had a good year as well.
“The fact that we’re so much better than some of the other places is interesting because there’s lots of lovely places to live in this country.”
A large proportion of rural southern Oxfordshire made the top 1,000 best places to live.
The area including Grove was ranked 311th, while Wallingford came 965th and part of central Abingdon broke into the top-100 with 96th.
South Abingdon came 2,473rd, south Didcot was 1,373rd and Wantage came 1,198th.
Oxford achieved mixed results, ranging from Marston in 1,234th to the city centre in 5,808th.
The western half of Chandlers Ford in Hampshire was ranked as the best place to live in England and Wales, while Grimsby’s East March area, in Lincolnshire, was at the bottom of the list.
