Is Orpington, Kent a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Orpington. 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 Orpington. 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	Chelsfield and Pratts Bottom	26583
2	Farnborough and Crofton	25569
3	Halstead, Knockholt and Badgers Mount	20442
4	Eynsford	17924
5	Orpington	14721
6	Cray Valley West	8295
7	Cray Valley East	6718
8	Swanley White Oak	6215
9	Swanley St Mary's	2602
10	Crockenhill and Well Hill	2492

Is Orpington a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Orpington, 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 Orpington 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
Bromley	3.8
Sevenoaks (Orpington)	3.96
Greenwich	4.6

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Orpington. 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 Orpington. 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	Halstead, Knockholt and Badgers Mount	30874
3	Crockenhill and Well Hill	30761
4	Chelsfield and Pratts Bottom	29390
5	Farnborough and Crofton	28998
6	Orpington	26524
7	Cray Valley West	18559
8	Swanley St Mary's	18468
9	Cray Valley East	18305
10	Swanley White Oak (Worst)	16759

Is Orpington rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Orpington. 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	Chelsfield and Pratts Bottom	28176
2	Farnborough and Crofton	27122
3	Eynsford	26447
4	Halstead, Knockholt and Badgers Mount	24162
5	Orpington	19767
6	Crockenhill and Well Hill	14608
7	Swanley White Oak	11862
8	Cray Valley East	11423
9	Cray Valley West	10706
10	Swanley St Mary's	9009

How affordable are the rents in Orpington?

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, Orpington 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 Orpington per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Bromley	£879.70
2	Greenwich	£805.20
3	Sevenoaks (Orpington)	£774.50
4	Dartford	£753.00

So, is Orpington a nice place to live?

* Probably.