Is Ashford, Kent a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Ashford. 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 Ashford. 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	Godinton	20125
2	Conningbrook & Little Burton Farm	19508
3	Repton	16085
4	Weald Central	15424
5	Willesborough	14875
6	Bybrook	10169
7	Furley	8923
8	Victoria	8701
9	Bockhanger	8279
10	Norman	7041

Is Ashford a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Ashford, 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 Ashford 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	%
Maidstone	4.26
Ashford (Ashford)	4.59
Canterbury	5.1
Swale	5.69

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Ashford. 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 Ashford. 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	Godinton (Best)	30494
2	Weald Central	25403
3	Conningbrook & Little Burton Farm	23931
4	Repton	23720
5	Furley	20874
6	Victoria	19296
7	Willesborough	18964
8	Bybrook	17496
9	Bockhanger	16321
10	Norman (Worst)	14971

Is Ashford rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Ashford. 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	Godinton	26459
2	Conningbrook & Little Burton Farm	22233
3	Repton	19117
4	Weald Central	18327
5	Bybrook	17776
6	Willesborough	15251
7	Bockhanger	13773
8	Furley	13227
9	Victoria	12801
10	Norman	10254

How affordable are the rents in Ashford?

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

Beds	Ashford	Kent
1	£725	£685
2	£825	£860
3	£995	£1050
4	£1355	£1498

How much can I earn in Ashford per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Swale	£702.80
2	Maidstone	£668.70
3	Canterbury	£667.40
4	Ashford (Ashford)	£662.40

So, is Ashford a nice place to live?

* Probably.