Is Whitstable, Kent a nice place to live?

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

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

The English Indices of Deprivation has a crime element for Whitstable. 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 Whitstable. 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	Chestfield	24551
2	Herne & Broomfield	24100
3	Swalecliffe	22479
4	Seasalter	17231
5	West Bay	17136
6	Tankerton	15838
7	Boughton and Courtenay	13448
8	Greenhill	10607
9	Gorrell	9464
10	Heron	8930

Is Whitstable a healthy place to live?

If you are thinking of moving to Whitstable, 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 Whitstable 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	4.59
Canterbury (Whitstable)	5.1
Swale	5.69

The English Indices of Deprivation also has health statistics for Whitstable. 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 Whitstable. 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	Chestfield (Best)	24409
2	Tankerton	24212
3	Seasalter	21130
4	Herne & Broomfield	20741
5	Swalecliffe	20441
6	Gorrell	18945
7	Boughton and Courtenay	17012
8	Greenhill	15375
9	West Bay	14329
10	Heron (Worst)	12017

Is Whitstable rough?

Using the English Indices of Deprivation statistics, we've collated the average rank for 10 wards in and around Whitstable. 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	Tankerton	25420
2	Chestfield	24515
3	Herne & Broomfield	23113
4	Swalecliffe	22066
5	Seasalter	21378
6	Gorrell	18820
7	Boughton and Courtenay	15115
8	Greenhill	13703
9	West Bay	13252
10	Heron	10808

How affordable are the rents in Whitstable?

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

Beds	Canterbury	Kent
1	£725	£685
2	£900	£860
3	£1100	£1050
4	£1508	£1498

How much can I earn in Whitstable per week?

If you are thinking of moving to Whitstable, 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 Whitstable'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 (Whitstable)	£667.40
4	Ashford	£662.40

So, is Whitstable a nice place to live?

* Probably.