Is Dorking, Surrey a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Dorking. 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 Dorking. 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	Box Hill and Headley	27691
2	Mickleham, Westhumble and Pixham	23496
3	Bookham South	22834
4	Leatherhead South	22318
5	Dorking North	22027
6	Dorking South	20204
7	Westcott	20165
8	Beare Green	19128
9	Holmwoods	17110
10	Leith Hill	16315

Is Dorking a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Dorking, 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 Dorking 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	%
Elmbridge	2.87
Epsom and Ewell	3.06
Reigate and Banstead	3.4
Mole Valley (Dorking)	3.68

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Dorking. 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 Dorking. 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	Leith Hill (Best)	31690
2	Mickleham, Westhumble and Pixham	30704
3	Westcott	28977
4	Leatherhead South	27183
5	Bookham South	26330
6	Dorking South	25790
7	Box Hill and Headley	24811
8	Holmwoods	23886
9	Dorking North	23505
10	Beare Green (Worst)	18415

Is Dorking rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Dorking. 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	Dorking South	27952
2	Westcott	27849
3	Dorking North	27819
4	Bookham South	27209
5	Leatherhead South	27120
6	Mickleham, Westhumble and Pixham	23973
7	Holmwoods	19707
8	Beare Green	18873
9	Box Hill and Headley	16492
10	Leith Hill	14977

How affordable are the rents in Dorking?

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

Beds	Mole Valley	Surrey
1	£900	£900
2	£1150	£1170
3	£1500	£1450
4	£2300	£2250

How much can I earn in Dorking per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Elmbridge	£895.60
2	Epsom and Ewell	£850.00
3	Reigate and Banstead	£800.00
4	Mole Valley (Dorking)	£782.40

So, is Dorking a nice place to live?

Dorking has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, the rents in Dorking are more expensive than other parts of Surrey.

* Probably.