Is West Malling, Kent a nice place to live?

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

How likely are you to a victim of crime in West Malling?

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for West Malling. 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 West Malling. 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	Kings Hill	27828
2	Wateringbury	23476
3	Barming and Teston	23400
4	Ditton	22109
5	Larkfield North	20616
6	Larkfield South	15932
7	West Malling and Leybourne	14870
8	Downs and Mereworth	11369
9	Snodland East and Ham Hill	11072
10	East Malling	7257

Is West Malling a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to West Malling, 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 West Malling 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
Tonbridge and Malling (West Malling)	4
Gravesham	4.84
Medway	5.1

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for West Malling. 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 West Malling. 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	Wateringbury (Best)	30270
2	Kings Hill	29858
3	Downs and Mereworth	28843
4	Barming and Teston	28828
5	West Malling and Leybourne	27750
6	Larkfield North	27705
7	Ditton	25094
8	Larkfield South	24086
9	East Malling	19180
10	Snodland East and Ham Hill (Worst)	17413

Is West Malling rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around West Malling. 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	Barming and Teston	30246
2	Wateringbury	30245
3	Kings Hill	27983
4	Larkfield North	24260
5	West Malling and Leybourne	23061
6	Larkfield South	22616
7	Ditton	22342
8	Downs and Mereworth	17743
9	Snodland East and Ham Hill	13273
10	East Malling	11256

How affordable are the rents in West Malling?

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, West Malling 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 West Malling per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Tonbridge and Malling (West Malling)	£766.60
2	Gravesham	£755.40
3	Dartford	£753.00
4	Medway UA	£683.40

So, is West Malling a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.