Is Tonbridge, Kent a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Tonbridge. 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 Tonbridge. 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	Speldhurst and Bidborough	28703
2	Vauxhall	21497
3	Higham	20288
4	Capel	19934
5	Southborough North	17716
6	Judd	17471
7	Castle	15897
8	Cage Green	15738
9	Trench	13471
10	Medway	12484

Is Tonbridge a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Tonbridge, 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 Tonbridge 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
Tunbridge Wells	3.8
Sevenoaks	3.96
Tonbridge and Malling (Tonbridge)	4

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Tonbridge. 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 Tonbridge. 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	Speldhurst and Bidborough (Best)	31118
2	Capel	28016
3	Castle	27132
4	Vauxhall	26843
5	Judd	25452
6	Southborough North	25220
7	Higham	24831
8	Medway	23801
9	Cage Green	23383
10	Trench (Worst)	17775

Is Tonbridge rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Tonbridge. 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	Speldhurst and Bidborough	29918
2	Southborough North	25964
3	Higham	25098
4	Vauxhall	24446
5	Castle	24005
6	Capel	21751
7	Cage Green	21748
8	Judd	21680
9	Medway	20477
10	Trench	14477

How affordable are the rents in Tonbridge?

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

Beds	Tonbridge and Malling	Kent
1	£795	£685
2	£1000	£860
3	£1300	£1050
4	£1800	£1498

How much can I earn in Tonbridge per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Sevenoaks	£774.50
2	Tonbridge and Malling (Tonbridge)	£766.60
3	Tunbridge Wells	£766.30
4	Dartford	£753.00

So, is Tonbridge a nice place to live?

Tonbridge has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, the rents in Tonbridge are more expensive than other parts of Kent.  However, Tonbridge does have a number of wards were crime is worse than the national average.

* Probably.