Is Strood, Kent a nice place to live?

Is Strood a nice place to live or is Strood 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 Strood meets our criteria.

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Strood. 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 Strood. 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	Northern Rother	26781
2	Tenterden St Michael's	24504
3	Tenterden North	21939
4	Biddenden	20458
5	Rolvenden & Tenterden West	19867
6	Benenden and Cranbrook	19601
7	Frittenden and Sissinghurst	18828
8	Tenterden South	17989
9	Weald North	16655
10	Eastern Rother	16066

Is Strood a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Strood, 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 Strood 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	%
Tunbridge Wells	3.8
Maidstone	4.26
Ashford (Strood)	4.59
Hastings	7.27

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Strood. 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 Strood. 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	Frittenden and Sissinghurst (Best)	32295
2	Weald North	26763
3	Benenden and Cranbrook	26168
4	Tenterden St Michael's	25439
5	Rolvenden & Tenterden West	24620
6	Tenterden North	24520
7	Biddenden	23902
8	Tenterden South	23014
9	Northern Rother	21815
10	Eastern Rother (Worst)	17340

Is Strood rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Strood. 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	Tenterden St Michael's	24722
2	Tenterden North	22812
3	Frittenden and Sissinghurst	22743
4	Benenden and Cranbrook	20029
5	Tenterden South	19154
6	Weald North	18010
7	Rolvenden & Tenterden West	17948
8	Northern Rother	17501
9	Biddenden	15507
10	Eastern Rother	9779

How affordable are the rents in Strood?

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, Strood rents for each size property have to be less than 5% more than the median rent for Kent.

Beds	Ashford	Kent
1	£725	£685
2	£825	£860
3	£995	£1050
4	£1355	£1498

How much can I earn in Strood per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Strood, 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 Strood's local authority needs to be in first or second place compared to the three nearest local authorities.

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Tunbridge Wells	£766.30
2	Maidstone	£668.70
3	Ashford (Strood)	£662.40
4	Hastings	£655.80

So, is Strood a nice place to live?

Strood has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, the rents in Strood are more expensive than other parts of Kent.

* Probably.