So you're asking yourself the question 'is Rochester a nice place to live?'' You've found some estate agents and they have told you what you wanted to hear. You've read some speil by a local councillor who says that Rochester is on the up an up? Now it's time for a bit of reality. Cold hard statistics culled from the Police, the Indices of Deprivation and the latest census. Is Rochester truly a nice place to live, or are Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham a lot better? Time to find out.
Crime in Rochester
Using the latest Police street crime figures for the month of February 2021 we have compiled a table of the most voilent Policing areas in and around Rochester. 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 |
|---|---|
| Brompton | 360 |
| Gillingham | 327 |
| Grange | 174 |
| Frindsbury | 127 |
| Wayfield | 112 |
| Chatham | 98 |
| Borstal | 71 |
| Chattenden | 33 |
| Lower Upnor | 32 |
| Higham | 6 |
The English Indices of Deprivation also has crime statistics for Rochester. These statitics 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 collated an average rank for all the Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA) in each ward in and around Rochester. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst.
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Strood Rural (Best) | 14361/32845 |
| Rochester South and Horsted | 12266/32845 |
| Strood North | 12046/32845 |
| Strood South | 8500/32845 |
| River | 7986/32845 |
| Rochester East | 5339/32845 |
| Rochester West | 5062/32845 |
| Luton and Wayfield | 3300/32845 |
| Gillingham North | 3097/32845 |
| Chatham Central (Worst) | 2313/32845 |
Gillingham- The Bane of my Life
Your Health in Rochester
If you are thinking of moving to Rochester, 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 Rochester compares to its neighbouring local authorities. People were asked to rate their current health from very bad to very good;
| Town | Very Bad | Bad |
|---|---|---|
| Medway (Rochester) | 1.09% | 3.94% |
| Gravesham | 1.1% | 4.03% |
| Tonbridge and Malling | 0.86% | 3.09% |
| Dartford | 1.03% | 3.4% |
The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Rochester. 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 Rochester. The table below shows ten wards in this area, from the best to the worst;
| Ward | Average rank in England |
|---|---|
| Rochester South and Horsted (Best) | 19230/32845 |
| Strood Rural | 19044/32845 |
| Rochester West | 18250/32845 |
| Strood North | 16679/32845 |
| Rochester East | 13775/32845 |
| Strood South | 13571/32845 |
| River | 11043/32845 |
| Gillingham North | 9879/32845 |
| Luton and Wayfield | 8421/32845 |
| Chatham Central (Worst) | 8025/32845 |
Maidstone - The biggest moving mistake of my life
Deprivation in Rochester
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 Rochester. 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 |
|---|---|
| Rochester South and Horsted (Best) | 19775/32845 |
| Strood Rural | 19603/32845 |
| Strood North | 15505/32845 |
| Rochester West | 15081/32845 |
| Rochester East | 10889/32845 |
| River | 10527/32845 |
| Strood South | 9583/32845 |
| Gillingham North | 5730/32845 |
| Luton and Wayfield | 5326/32845 |
| Chatham Central (Worst) | 4752/32845 |
Average rent in Rochester
Every six months the Office for National statitics publishes a snapshot of rental costs. These statistics for Rochester 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 Rochester.
Weekly Gross Pay and Hourly Pay in Rochester
If you are thinking of moving to Rochester, 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.
