Is Paddock Wood, Kent a nice place to live?

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

How likely are you to a victim of crime in Paddock Wood?

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Paddock Wood. 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 Paddock Wood. 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	Brenchley and Horsmonden	25872
2	Pembury	23905
3	Paddock Wood East	23555
4	Paddock Wood West	22467
5	Hadlow and East Peckham	21851
6	Higham	20288
7	Capel	19934
8	Marden and Yalding	16909
9	Sherwood	14630
10	Medway	12484

Is Paddock Wood a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Paddock Wood, 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 Paddock Wood 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	%
Tunbridge Wells (Paddock Wood)	3.8
Sevenoaks	3.96
Tonbridge and Malling	4
Medway	5.1

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Paddock Wood. 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 Paddock Wood. 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	Brenchley and Horsmonden (Best)	30940
2	Capel	28016
3	Paddock Wood West	25283
4	Higham	24831
5	Hadlow and East Peckham	24557
6	Medway	23801
7	Pembury	22972
8	Marden and Yalding	21787
9	Paddock Wood East	21151
10	Sherwood (Worst)	19370

Is Paddock Wood rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Paddock Wood. 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	Pembury	25537
2	Higham	25098
3	Paddock Wood East	22959
4	Paddock Wood West	22489
5	Brenchley and Horsmonden	22279
6	Capel	21751
7	Hadlow and East Peckham	21102
8	Medway	20477
9	Marden and Yalding	15299
10	Sherwood	13206

How affordable are the rents in Paddock Wood?

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

Beds	Tunbridge Wells	Kent
1	£775	£685
2	£1025	£860
3	£1295	£1050
4	£2000	£1498

How much can I earn in Paddock Wood per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Paddock Wood, 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 Paddock Wood'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	£766.60
3	Tunbridge Wells (Paddock Wood)	£766.30
4	Medway UA	£683.40

So, is Paddock Wood a nice place to live?

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

* Probably.