Is Ashford, Kent a nice place to live?

Is Ashford a nice place to live or is Ashford rough? Forget local estate agents sales speil and local councillors who say that Ashford is on the up an up, it's time for a bit of reality. Cold hard statistics culled from the Police, the Indices of Deprivation and the latest census. Is Ashford truly a nice place to live, or are Faversham, Hythe and Tenterden a lot better? Time to find out.

What are the crime levels like in Ashford?

Using the latest Police street crime figures (typically from 3 months ago) we have compiled a table of the most voilent Policing areas in and around Ashford. Naturally the more urban and more central areas will have a higher rate of crime, but often you can be surprised when that is not the case and that is the area you want to move to.
Policing Area Voilent Crimes
Ashford 148
South Ashford 108
Kennington 96
Bockhanger 96
Bybrook 96
South Willesborough 39
Great Chart 37
Chilmington Green 22
Potters Corner 18
Hothfield 3

The English Indices of Deprivation also has crime statistics for Ashford. These statistics are published by the government every 2-3 years. 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. We've taken the rank average for wards in and around Ashford and compared them. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst.

You least likely to be a victim of crime in the Godinton ward.

Ward Average rank in England
Godinton (Best) 20125/32845
Conningbrook & Little Burton Farm 19508/32845
Repton 16085/32845
Weald Central 15424/32845
Willesborough 14875/32845
Bybrook 10169/32845
Furley 8923/32845
Victoria 8701/32845
Bockhanger 8279/32845
Norman (Worst) 7041/32845
Reader Opinion:

Sittingbourne - a bleak wasteland between the M2 & the Isle of Sheppey

Your Health in Ashford

If you are thinking of moving to Ashford, you want to know if the place is likely to put you on a downward spiral of ill health. We've taken the healh question from the latest census to find out and how Ashford compares to its neighbouring local authorities. People were asked to rate their current health from very bad to very good;

Town Very Bad Bad
Swale 1.32% 4.42%
Canterbury 1.12% 4.06%
Maidstone 0.97% 3.43%
Ashford (Ashford) 1.06% 3.53%

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Ashford. 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 rank for all the Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA) in each ward in and around Ashford. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst;

Ward Average rank in England
Godinton (Best) 30494/32845
Weald Central 25403/32845
Conningbrook & Little Burton Farm 23931/32845
Repton 23720/32845
Furley 20874/32845
Victoria 19296/32845
Willesborough 18964/32845
Bybrook 17496/32845
Bockhanger 16321/32845
Norman (Worst) 14971/32845
Reader Opinion:

Ashford, once a village, became ruined due to the airport

Deprivation in Ashford

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average Index of Multiple Deprivation rank of all the LSOAs in the wards in and around Ashford. 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.

Ward Average rank in England
Godinton (Best) 26459/32845
Conningbrook & Little Burton Farm 22233/32845
Repton 19117/32845
Weald Central 18327/32845
Bybrook 17776/32845
Willesborough 15251/32845
Bockhanger 13773/32845
Furley 13227/32845
Victoria 12801/32845
Norman (Worst) 10254/32845

Average rent in Ashford

Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These statistics for Ashford are dated September 2021. They are split into three figures, the lower quartile, mean and upper quartile. If you recieve housing benefit or the housing benefit section of Universal Credit, the lower quartile is at the top limit of what would be affordable. The mean is the average you'd expect to pay for a rental property and the upper quartile is the average rental cost of the most expensive 25% of properties in Ashford.

Weekly Gross Pay and Hourly Pay in Ashford

If you are thinking of moving to Ashford, you'll want to know how much you can earn in a job in the town. The government publish regular statistics on gross weekly pay and pay per hour.

How grim is your Postcode?