Is Orpington, Kent a nice place to live?

Is Orpington a nice place to live or is Orpington rough? Forget local estate agents sales speil and local councillors who say that Orpington 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 Orpington truly a nice place to live, or are St Mary Cray, Sevenoaks and Swanley a lot better? Time to find out.

What are the crime levels like in Orpington?

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 Orpington. 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
Ramsden 59
Chelsfield 16
Green Street Green 5
Maypole 4
Halstead 4
Knockholt 3
Badgers Mount 2
Rushmore Hill 2
Timberden Bottom 1
Shoreham 1

The English Indices of Deprivation also has crime statistics for Orpington. 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 Orpington 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 Chelsfield and Pratts Bottom ward.

Ward Average rank in England
Chelsfield and Pratts Bottom (Best) 26583/32845
Farnborough and Crofton 25569/32845
Halstead, Knockholt and Badgers Mount 20442/32845
Eynsford 17924/32845
Orpington 14721/32845
Cray Valley West 8295/32845
Cray Valley East 6718/32845
Swanley White Oak 6215/32845
Swanley St Mary's 2602/32845
Crockenhill and Well Hill (Worst) 2492/32845
Reader Opinion:

Orpington has been growing in recent years to be one of the most chavy areas imaginable.

Your Health in Orpington

If you are thinking of moving to Orpington, 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 Orpington compares to its neighbouring local authorities. People were asked to rate their current health from very bad to very good;

Town Very Bad Bad
Greenwich 1.27% 4.09%
Bromley 0.91% 3.2%
Sevenoaks (Orpington) 0.87% 3.11%
Dartford 1.03% 3.4%

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Orpington. 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 Orpington. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst;

Ward Average rank in England
Eynsford (Best) 31745/32845
Halstead, Knockholt and Badgers Mount 30874/32845
Crockenhill and Well Hill 30761/32845
Chelsfield and Pratts Bottom 29390/32845
Farnborough and Crofton 28998/32845
Orpington 26524/32845
Cray Valley West 18559/32845
Swanley St Mary's 18468/32845
Cray Valley East 18305/32845
Swanley White Oak (Worst) 16759/32845
Reader Opinion:

Dartford - I escaped

Deprivation in Orpington

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 Orpington. 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
Chelsfield and Pratts Bottom (Best) 28176/32845
Farnborough and Crofton 27122/32845
Eynsford 26447/32845
Halstead, Knockholt and Badgers Mount 24162/32845
Orpington 19767/32845
Crockenhill and Well Hill 14608/32845
Swanley White Oak 11862/32845
Cray Valley East 11423/32845
Cray Valley West 10706/32845
Swanley St Mary's (Worst) 9009/32845

Average rent in Orpington

Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These statistics for Orpington 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 Orpington.

Weekly Gross Pay and Hourly Pay in Orpington

If you are thinking of moving to Orpington, 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?