Is Sevenoaks, Kent a nice place to live?

Is Sevenoaks a nice place to live or is Sevenoaks a bit rough? For us there are a number of factors that make any town a nice place to live, like a low crime rate, low levels of deprivation, the good health of the residents, rent affordability and excellent wages. In this article we will see if Sevenoaks meets our criteria.

How likely are you to a victim of crime in Sevenoaks?

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Sevenoaks. 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. Naturally rural areas have less crime than urban areas, but for this part of our town assessment we've looked at the 10 wards nearest to the centre of Sevenoaks. To pass this section, 8 out of 10 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5

#	Ward	Crime Rank
1	Sevenoaks Kippington	23747
2	Sevenoaks Town and St John's	21080
3	Kemsing	20969
4	Wrotham, Ightham and Stansted	20447
5	Otford and Shoreham	18151
6	Dunton Green and Riverhead	17809
7	Brasted, Chevening and Sundridge	17162
8	Seal and Weald	15316
9	Sevenoaks Eastern	13364
10	Sevenoaks Northern	9891

Is Sevenoaks a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Sevenoaks, you want to know if the place is likely to put you on a downward spiral of ill health. For this section of the town assessment, we've examined government health statistics from the 2021 Census General Health question and the Indices of Multiple Deprivation's health element.The table below shows what percentage of Sevenoaks residents answered saying their health was either bad or very bad. To pass this section, the local authority has to have a percentage score less than or equal to 7%.

Local Authority	%
Dartford	3.76
Tunbridge Wells	3.8
Sevenoaks (Sevenoaks)	3.96
Tonbridge and Malling	4

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Sevenoaks. 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 LSOA rank for 10 wards nearest to the centre of Sevenoaks. To pass this section, 8 out of 10 of these wards need to be above the English national average rank of 16422.5.

#	Ward	Health Rank
1	Sevenoaks Kippington (Best)	32430
2	Dunton Green and Riverhead	31251
3	Brasted, Chevening and Sundridge	30705
4	Sevenoaks Town and St John's	30615
5	Seal and Weald	30419
6	Otford and Shoreham	30093
7	Wrotham, Ightham and Stansted	29438
8	Kemsing	28638
9	Sevenoaks Eastern	28072
10	Sevenoaks Northern (Worst)	26391

Is Sevenoaks rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Sevenoaks. 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. To pass this section as the town assessment, 8 out of 10 wards must have a ranking higher than the English average of 16422.5

#	Ward	Deprivation Rank
1	Sevenoaks Town and St John's	31195
2	Sevenoaks Kippington	29799
3	Dunton Green and Riverhead	28693
4	Kemsing	26500
5	Brasted, Chevening and Sundridge	24683
6	Sevenoaks Eastern	24574
7	Otford and Shoreham	23480
8	Sevenoaks Northern	23260
9	Wrotham, Ightham and Stansted	21850
10	Seal and Weald	21312

How affordable are the rents in Sevenoaks?

Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These market rental statistics are dated September 2023. We have used the median rental figure for this assessment as we believe this is a more realistic figure than the average (mean) that can be skewed by artificially low and high rents. To pass this section, Sevenoaks rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for Kent.

Beds	Sevenoaks	Kent
1	£900	£685
2	£1200	£860
3	£1400	£1050
4	£2750	£1498

How much can I earn in Sevenoaks per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Sevenoaks, you'll want to know how much you can earn in a job in the town. Every year the government publishes statistics on gross weekly pay, these figures are for September 2023. To pass this section Sevenoaks's local authority needs to be in first or second place compared to the three nearest local authorities.

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Sevenoaks (Sevenoaks)	£774.50
2	Tonbridge and Malling	£766.60
3	Tunbridge Wells	£766.30
4	Dartford	£753.00

So, is Sevenoaks a nice place to live?

Sevenoaks has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, the rents in Sevenoaks are more expensive than other parts of Kent.  However, Sevenoaks does have a number of wards were crime is worse than the national average.

* Probably.