Is Swanley, Kent a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Swanley. 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 Swanley. 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	Joyden's Wood	18507
2	Eynsford	17924
3	St Mary's & St James	16199
4	Swanley Christchurch and Swanley Village	16142
5	Hextable	13345
6	Wilmington, Sutton-at-Hone & Hawley	11292
7	Farningham, Horton Kirby and South Darenth	10526
8	Maypole & Leyton Cross	9623
9	Swanley White Oak	6215
10	Swanley St Mary's	2602

Is Swanley a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Swanley, 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 Swanley 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	%
Dartford	3.76
Sevenoaks (Swanley)	3.96
Bexley	4.33
Greenwich	4.6

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Swanley. 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 Swanley. 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	Eynsford (Best)	31745
2	Farningham, Horton Kirby and South Darenth	27748
3	Hextable	27624
4	Swanley Christchurch and Swanley Village	27350
5	Joyden's Wood	26708
6	St Mary's & St James	23898
7	Maypole & Leyton Cross	19880
8	Wilmington, Sutton-at-Hone & Hawley	18504
9	Swanley St Mary's	18468
10	Swanley White Oak (Worst)	16759

Is Swanley rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Swanley. 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	Joyden's Wood	27328
2	Eynsford	26447
3	Hextable	23668
4	Swanley Christchurch and Swanley Village	23467
5	St Mary's & St James	21762
6	Farningham, Horton Kirby and South Darenth	21054
7	Maypole & Leyton Cross	18468
8	Wilmington, Sutton-at-Hone & Hawley	17097
9	Swanley White Oak	11862
10	Swanley St Mary's	9009

How affordable are the rents in Swanley?

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

Beds	Sevenoaks	Kent
1	£900	£685
2	£1200	£860
3	£1400	£1050
4	£2750	£1498

How much can I earn in Swanley per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Greenwich	£805.20
2	Bexley	£789.80
3	Sevenoaks (Swanley)	£774.50
4	Dartford	£753.00

So, is Swanley a nice place to live?

* Probably.