Chippenham
Town · 36,784 residents
66Good
Good · better than 5 in 10 towns
Check Local Score out of 100 · 60 is typical for the country
Each arc is a topic, coloured by its score
What’s good
- Less recorded crime than is typical: 72 per 1,000 people a year against 100
- 59% of residents live within five minutes of a park
Check before you view
- Radon: part of the area is in an affected zone, and a home test is cheap
- Food & drink scores 37, below the typical 60
The essentials
Everyday life
The area
Around Chippenham
Lowden Hill73Greenway Lane64GreenwaysHardenhuish79Pew Hill60Rowden74Cocklebury61Greenway ParkLowden71Lacock62Corsham72Bremhill66
See all 17 in the guide ↓Map outline: Official built-up area
Is Chippenham a good place to live?
Chippenham scores 66/100 overall, which the scorecard rates as good — 60 is typical for the country.
It stands out for safety (74) and environment (73).
It scores lowest on food & drink (37).
Scores come from official data on safety, schools, transport, prices, health, food & drink and the local environment, for Chippenham in South West, each measured against the national average.
Summary of Chippenham
Chippenham reads as a working market town rather than a commuter dormitory: terraces and semis lining streets that lead into a compact centre, retail parks on the edges, and the kind of population density — well above the national average — that tells you this is a proper town, not a village with a postbox. It attracts a slightly older mix than the country as a whole, families and established homeowners more than young sharers, and the town centre has the practical, unglamorous energy of somewhere people actually run errands rather than pose for photos.
The practical picture holds together well. Chippenham Rail Station puts direct trains within reach for anyone working further afield, which matters because the town's own economy is solid rather than spectacular — sitting among the less deprived areas nationally, though income levels are only middling. Schools are a mixed bag rather than a uniform strength: Sheldon School carries a Good rating for secondary-age children, but several primaries, including St Mary's Catholic Primary and Frogwell Primary, are rated as requiring improvement, so it's worth checking catchment carefully rather than assuming every school here performs the same. Housing leans toward semi-detached freehold homes, and at a median around £285,000 — a little below the Wiltshire average and close to the national median — a for-sale board here typically means an ordinary family house rather than either a bargain or a stretch. Detached and semi-detached prices actually run above the national comparison, while flats sell for notably less, suggesting the flat market here is soft compared with houses.