Is Westerham, Kent a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Westerham. 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 Westerham. 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	Dunton Green and Riverhead	17809
2	Oxted North and Tandridge	17174
3	Brasted, Chevening and Sundridge	17162
4	Edenbridge North and East	17037
5	Tatsfield and Titsey	14618
6	Limpsfield	13404
7	Westerham and Crockham Hill	11682
8	Oxted South	10866
9	Sevenoaks Northern	9891
10	Edenbridge South and West	9668

Is Westerham a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Westerham, 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 Westerham 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	%
Reigate and Banstead	3.4
Tandridge	3.77
Sevenoaks (Westerham)	3.96
Croydon	4.26

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Westerham. 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 Westerham. 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	Dunton Green and Riverhead (Best)	31251
2	Brasted, Chevening and Sundridge	30705
3	Tatsfield and Titsey	30578
4	Limpsfield	30256
5	Westerham and Crockham Hill	28878
6	Edenbridge South and West	26481
7	Sevenoaks Northern	26391
8	Oxted North and Tandridge	25819
9	Edenbridge North and East	24330
10	Oxted South (Worst)	23547

Is Westerham rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Westerham. 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	Dunton Green and Riverhead	28693
2	Oxted North and Tandridge	27034
3	Limpsfield	25993
4	Brasted, Chevening and Sundridge	24683
5	Sevenoaks Northern	23260
6	Westerham and Crockham Hill	22204
7	Tatsfield and Titsey	22003
8	Oxted South	21564
9	Edenbridge North and East	20726
10	Edenbridge South and West	16114

How affordable are the rents in Westerham?

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, Westerham 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 Westerham per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Reigate and Banstead	£800.00
2	Sevenoaks (Westerham)	£774.50
3	Croydon	£774.40
4	Tandridge	£718.10

So, is Westerham a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.