Is Sandwich, Kent a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Sandwich. 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 Sandwich. 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	Sandwich	24181
2	Little Stour & Ashstone	23263
3	Walmer	21999
4	Guston, Kingsdown & St Margaret's-at-Cliffe	21963
5	Eastry Rural	18880
6	Mill Hill	17022
7	North Deal	16819
8	Nethercourt	15800
9	Cliffsend and Pegwell	12785
10	Middle Deal	11388

Is Sandwich a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Sandwich, 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 Sandwich 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	%
Canterbury	5.1
Dover (Sandwich)	6.19
Folkestone and Hythe	6.49
Thanet	7.23

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Sandwich. 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 Sandwich. 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	Guston, Kingsdown & St Margaret's-at-Cliffe (Best)	22516
2	Sandwich	22493
3	Little Stour & Ashstone	21618
4	Walmer	21477
5	Eastry Rural	18293
6	North Deal	18034
7	Cliffsend and Pegwell	16847
8	Mill Hill	16637
9	Nethercourt	14863
10	Middle Deal (Worst)	13202

Is Sandwich rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Sandwich. 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	Walmer	21991
2	Sandwich	20766
3	Guston, Kingsdown & St Margaret's-at-Cliffe	19498
4	Cliffsend and Pegwell	18866
5	Little Stour & Ashstone	16485
6	North Deal	16263
7	Mill Hill	15279
8	Nethercourt	15276
9	Eastry Rural	13531
10	Middle Deal	13114

How affordable are the rents in Sandwich?

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

Beds	Dover	Kent
1	£525	£685
2	£700	£860
3	£875	£1050
4	£1250	£1498

How much can I earn in Sandwich per week?

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

#	Local Authority	Median Pw
1	Folkestone and Hythe	£687.70
2	Dover (Sandwich)	£681.80
3	Canterbury	£667.40
4	Thanet	£613.70

So, is Sandwich a nice place to live?

Sandwich has passed our core town assesment with a score of 3/5.  However, Sandwich does more pockets of deprivation than the average town.  However, Sandwich does have a number of wards were crime is worse than the national average.

* Probably.