Is Canterbury, Kent a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Canterbury. 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 Canterbury. 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	Little Stour & Adisham	21438
2	Blean Forest	20515
3	Chartham & Stone Street	17747
4	Sturry	14781
5	Boughton and Courtenay	13448
6	St Stephen's	11561
7	Barton	10603
8	Westgate	9901
9	Wincheap	8339
10	Northgate	8280

Is Canterbury a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Canterbury, 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 Canterbury 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	%
Ashford	4.59
Canterbury (Canterbury)	5.1
Swale	5.69
Folkestone and Hythe	6.49

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Canterbury. 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 Canterbury. 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	Blean Forest (Best)	23080
2	Chartham & Stone Street	22957
3	Little Stour & Adisham	22557
4	Westgate	18826
5	Boughton and Courtenay	17012
6	St Stephen's	16793
7	Sturry	16387
8	Wincheap	15125
9	Barton	14217
10	Northgate (Worst)	13859

Is Canterbury rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Canterbury. 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	Blean Forest	24082
2	Little Stour & Adisham	22005
3	Chartham & Stone Street	20846
4	Westgate	19389
5	St Stephen's	18722
6	Wincheap	17467
7	Sturry	16775
8	Barton	16732
9	Boughton and Courtenay	15115
10	Northgate	14546

How affordable are the rents in Canterbury?

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

Beds	Canterbury	Kent
1	£725	£685
2	£900	£860
3	£1100	£1050
4	£1508	£1498

How much can I earn in Canterbury per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Swale	£702.80
2	Folkestone and Hythe	£687.70
3	Canterbury (Canterbury)	£667.40
4	Ashford	£662.40

So, is Canterbury a nice place to live?

* Probably.