Photo: Philip Halling · CC BY-SA 2.0How Kent stacks up
Kent’s strongest suit is strong schools. The sum of it: a B and a score of 61, 26th of 65 graded areas. Among its neighbours it leads on cost of living and growth and trails on getting about.
Each subject puts the official figure for the whole county beside a measure built from our town grades. How this works
Safety
33rd of 65B−50/100 About average for crime. Violent crime runs at 35.0 offences per 1,000 residents a year, the 33rd lowest rate of 65 areas with police.uk figures. 26% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, 19% in a bottom-quarter one; Cuxton ranks highest.
Counting every recorded crime, not just violence: 75 per 1,000 a year (28th highest).
Source: police.uk street-level crime, September 2025 to August 2026 (each crime placed by its LSOA); Census 2021 residents. Greater Manchester Police publishes none.
Measure: recorded crime against residents (violence, burglary, vehicle crime, criminal damage), as in our Safety grades. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,138 graded towns. 87 Kent towns.
Quiet towns, busier ones
Its safest towns are Cliffe Woods (#75), Istead Rise (#76) and Hildenborough (#115), ranked against every graded town in the UK. At the other end are Chatham, Margate and Canterbury, in the quarter of town residents living with the most recorded crime.
| County | Safest quarter | Most-crime quarter | Split |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ards and North Down | 100% | 0% | |
| Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon | 100% | 0% | |
| Lisburn and Castlereagh | 100% | 0% | |
| Mid Ulster | 100% | 0% | |
| Antrim and Newtownabbey | 78% | 0% | |
| Kent | 26% | 19% |
Where crimes are counted
Each crime on police.uk is pinned to a nearby street or public place, not an address; both figures count crimes where those points fall. The county-wide rate takes in town centres, stations and shopping streets, where many offences are recorded but few people live. Our town grades leave shop theft and other town-centre crime out and count violence, burglary, vehicle crime and criminal damage, the crimes that reach people at home.
Schools
21st of 90A−78/100 Strong results in the classroom. 64% of pupils reach the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at the end of primary school, against 64% across England (15th highest). 22% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, 28% in a bottom-quarter one; Hildenborough ranks highest.
GCSE: an average Attainment 8 score of 47.4, 11th highest. The grade weighs primary and GCSE results equally.
Source: DfE key stage 2 results 2024/25 and key stage 4 (Attainment 8), every state school in the county, pupil-weighted. England only.
Measure: our Schools grade: primary and secondary results of the schools in and around each town. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,331 graded towns. 87 Kent towns.
Cost of living
90th of 98D9/100 Cost is the price of living here. None of its towns makes the top quarter; Sheerness comes closest, at #924 of 2,515. Land Registry sales put the typical home at £345,000, or 5.9 years of average household income, against 5.2 across England and Wales. It leads its neighbours on affordability, ahead of London.
Typical sale price: £345,000 (20,408 sales, 12th highest).
Private rent £1,311 a month (14th highest); Band D council tax £2,436 (32nd highest). Shown for context.
Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid, standard sales September 2025 to August 2026; ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023); ONS Price Index of Private Rents (August 2026); council Band D 2026/27.
Measure: our Cost of living grade: prices and rents against local income, plus council tax. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 87 Kent towns.
Health
33rd of 98B+67/100 A little healthier than average. Otford and Kemsing leads its towns at #17 of 2,515; 23% of town residents live in top-quarter towns. People here can expect 66.0 years in good health, against 65.2 across England and Wales (25th longest of 55 areas with figures).
Life expectancy at birth: 81.0 years, 27th shortest.
Source: ONS life expectancy and healthy life expectancy by small area (MSOA), 2019 to 2023, men and women averaged.
Measure: our Health grade: ONS life and healthy life expectancy, Census health, and OHID indicators in England. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 87 Kent towns.
Jobs & income
35th of 98B+65/100 A little better off than average. Its claimant rate, 3.5%, ranks 27th highest, while household income ranks 15th highest. Households take in £58,500 a year on average (15th highest), and 3.5% of working-age adults claim out-of-work benefits. 21% of town residents live in a top-quarter town, 14% in a bottom-quarter one; Sevenoaks ranks highest.
Claimant rate: 3.5% of 16 to 64-year-olds claim out-of-work benefits (August 2026), 27th highest. Counted half in the grade.
Source: ONS small-area income estimates (financial year ending 2023), household-weighted; DWP claimant count (August 2026) by council.
Measure: our Jobs & income grade: household income. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,156 graded towns. 87 Kent towns.
Getting about
24th of 98A−76/100 Easier to get about than most. At the 2021 Census, 21% of people travelling to work went on foot, by bike or by public transport, 4 points below the England and Wales figure. Every neighbour scores higher, East Sussex, Surrey and London among them. Canterbury leads its towns at #38 of 2,515; 8% of town residents live in top-quarter towns.
Worked mainly from home at the 2021 Census: 30% of workers (context; they are left out of the commuting share).
Source: ONS Census 2021, method of travel to work (TS061) by council; people working mainly from home left out.
Measure: our Walkability grade: how many everyday places are within reach on foot. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,515 graded towns. 87 Kent towns.
Flood risk
40th of 87B55/100 Slightly lower flood risk than average. Its towns mostly sit mid-table; Cliffe ranks highest, at #354. About 2 in 100 homes in its towns face a real risk of flooding from rivers or the sea (20th highest).
Source: Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales flood-risk maps (rivers and the sea), homes in every town of the county.
Measure: our Hazard risk grade: the share of homes at high or medium flood risk. The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 2,452 graded towns. 87 Kent towns.
Growth
19th of 98A−81/100 Healthy growth. Since 2011 it has grown 11.6%, the 17th fastest change of 98 areas. It leads its neighbours on growth, ahead of London. Aylesham leads its towns at #20 of 1,579; 29% of town residents live in top-quarter towns.
Since the 2021 Census: +3.9%, 20th fastest.
Source: ONS mid-year population estimates, 2011 and 2024.
Measure: population change from 2011 to 2024 (ONS estimates for built-up areas). The top quarter is the best-placed towns holding a quarter of the people in the UK’s 1,579 graded towns. 66 Kent towns. Covers 94% of residents of Kent’s graded towns.
How Kent compares to its neighbours
Next to East Sussex, Surrey and London, it comes out ahead on cost of living and growth and behind on getting about.
| Kent | East Sussex | Surrey | London | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | B 6126th of 65 | C 3344th of 65 | A 898th of 65 | B+ 6623rd of 65 |
| Safety | B− 5033rd official · 26% in top towns | C+ 3835th official · 23% in top towns | A 8812th official · 71% in top towns | C 2740th official · 15% in top towns |
| Schools | A− 7815th official · 22% in top towns | C+ 4029th official · 7% in top towns | A+ 972nd official · 72% in top towns | A+ 981st official · 79% in top towns |
| Cost of living | D 985th official · 0% in top towns | D− 295th official · 0% in top towns | D− 097th official · 0% in top towns | D 798th official · 6% in top towns |
| Health | B+ 6725th official · 23% in top towns | B+ 6623rd official · 19% in top towns | A+ 982nd official · 98% in top towns | B+ 6929th official · 31% in top towns |
| Jobs & income | B+ 6515th official · 21% in top towns | C+ 3922nd official · 7% in top towns | A+ 992nd official · 99% in top towns | B+ 721st official · 43% in top towns |
| Getting about | A− 7632nd official · 8% in top towns | A+ 955th official · 41% in top towns | A− 8123rd official · 14% in top towns | A+ 1001st official · 100% in top towns |
| Flood risk | B 5536th official · 30% in top towns | C+ 3823rd official · 13% in top towns | C− 1751st official · 18% in top towns | B 5919th official · 21% in top towns |
| Growth | A− 8117th official · 29% in top towns | C+ 4256th official · 7% in top towns | B+ 6730th official · 22% in top towns | B+ 7423rd official · 23% in top towns |
Each cell: the subject’s grade and score, the county’s rank on the official figure (1st = the better end), and the share of its town residents living in a top-quarter town for the UK. Neighbour names open their report cards.
How this report card works
Two measures, side by side. The left card is an official figure for the whole county, its towns, villages and countryside together, built from the small areas and councils that make it up and ranked against the other counties. The right card is built from our town grades: of everyone living in the county’s graded towns of 2,500 or more, the share whose town is in the top quarter for the UK. Quarters are of people, not towns: the top quarter is the best-placed towns that together hold a quarter of everyone living in graded towns, so a county of big cities is not marked down just for being urban. A county can do well on one measure and not the other; that difference is often the story.
Scores and grades. Each subject’s score (0–100) is the area’s standing in one UK league of 98: the ceremonial counties of England (London counts as one), Wales’s eight preserved counties, and Scotland’s 32 and Northern Ireland’s 11 council areas, each called by its own name. The two measures’ percentiles are averaged, then ranked again, the same method as our town grades. Where a nation publishes its own kind of figure, the official figure is ranked within that nation: school results everywhere, health in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and flood risk in Scotland. Each area’s figures are set beside its own nation’s. 100 is the best county, 0 the last. Letters use the town-grade scale (A+ from 95, A from 85, A− from 75 … D below 15). The overall score weighs safety 18, cost of living 18, schools 16, health 14, jobs & income 12, getting about 8, growth 8, flood risk 6 (out of 100), over the subjects a county has. Counties with fewer than 5 graded towns (Rutland, Bristol) are graded on the official figures alone.
What it is not. A county figure averages everyone, so it cannot show whether a county is evenly good or a mix of very good and struggling places. The town measure shows the mix but leaves out villages and towns under 2,500. Neither says anything about any one street.
Gaps. Wales publishes no school results that compare with England’s, so Welsh counties have no Schools grade. Greater Manchester Police publishes no street-level crime, so Greater Manchester has no Safety grade and, as for its towns, no overall grade. Nor does Police Scotland, so Scotland’s council areas have no Safety grade or overall grade yet. Scotland and Northern Ireland have no small-area income figures, so their household income is estimated from ONS household income per head. Flood risk has no county-wide official figure; it is the share of homes in the county’s towns at high or medium risk. Sources are named under each figure. How grades work
Sources: TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.