Is Dover, Kent a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Dover. 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 Dover. 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	Dover Downs & River	22316
2	Alkham & Capel-le-Ferne	19273
3	Aylesham, Eythorne & Shepherdswell	16466
4	Whitfield	14056
5	Maxton & Elms Vale	13584
6	Town & Castle	6290
7	Folkestone Harbour	5537
8	Buckland	3940
9	Tower Hamlets	2479
10	St Radigunds	1400

Is Dover a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Dover, 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 Dover 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	5.1
Dover (Dover)	6.19
Folkestone and Hythe	6.49

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Dover. 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 Dover. 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	Dover Downs & River (Best)	21902
2	Alkham & Capel-le-Ferne	21643
3	Maxton & Elms Vale	19457
4	Whitfield	16690
5	Aylesham, Eythorne & Shepherdswell	15892
6	Buckland	11085
7	Tower Hamlets	10835
8	Town & Castle	10544
9	St Radigunds	8787
10	Folkestone Harbour (Worst)	7530

Is Dover rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Dover. 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	Dover Downs & River	25118
2	Maxton & Elms Vale	19844
3	Whitfield	17172
4	Alkham & Capel-le-Ferne	17064
5	Aylesham, Eythorne & Shepherdswell	13833
6	Town & Castle	7754
7	Buckland	7109
8	Tower Hamlets	5427
9	Folkestone Harbour	5264
10	St Radigunds	4863

How affordable are the rents in Dover?

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

Beds	Dover	Kent
1	£525	£685
2	£700	£860
3	£875	£1050
4	£1250	£1498

How much can I earn in Dover per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Folkestone and Hythe	£687.70
2	Dover (Dover)	£681.80
3	Canterbury	£667.40
4	Ashford	£662.40

So, is Dover a nice place to live?

* Probably.