Best places to live in Kent: house prices and data by area

Sevenoaks is the dearest at £480,000 and Dover the cheapest at £289,950: the same budget buys 1.7 times as much home by price at one end of Kent as at the other.

The marker on each bar is the middle asking price of the new homes for sale there today. In 11 of the 12 council areas with enough new homes to compare, new homes are asking more than the homes sold around them: a new home is often larger or a different kind, so the gap is not the new-build premium on its own.

776 new homes are for sale across Kent today. Tonbridge and Malling has the most (124), then Swale (122).

Price per square foot takes the size of the home out of the comparison. It runs from £312 in Dover to £484 in Sevenoaks.

Sales for every thousand households show how often homes change hands, which is how much choice a buyer has in a year. Tonbridge and Malling is the busiest (29) and Gravesham the quietest (23), around a middle of 28.

A busy market is a sign of both supply and demand: more homes are coming up, and more buyers are competing for them.

In Swale, 2% of the homes sold in the last twelve months were sold new, the highest share in Kent; in Sevenoaks it was 0%. New sales reach the register later than resales, so the latest months undercount them.

Sold prices were flat in the middle council area of Kent over the last year. Gravesham moved most (up 4.1%) and Tonbridge and Malling least (down 3.6%).

The mix of homes sold changes from year to year, so a single council area can swing for that reason alone; read the pattern across the areas more than any one bar.

Over three years the middle council area's sold prices fell 3.8%, led by Dartford (up 2.3%).

Over three years the dearer council areas of Kent have clearly grown faster than the cheaper ones, widening the gap between them.

Council areas closer to central London have clearly seen more growth over three years than those further out.

Being ten miles closer to central London costs about £27 more per square foot across Kent, a clear pattern: on a home of a thousand square feet that is about £27,000.

The further a council area is from central London, the more of its workers clearly drive to work.

Council areas with more schools judged good or better are clearly dearer: every ten points more goes with about £150,000 on the middle sold price. The schools do not cause all of that; both follow the same households.

A council area is large: the school a home is offered depends on its own address, so check the schools around a development before relying on this.

Attainment 8 is a pupil's score across eight GCSE subjects. The secondary schools of Tunbridge Wells average the highest in Kent (57.2) and those of Sevenoaks the lowest (43.6).

Results are loosely higher closer to central London.

Density says what kind of place an area is: how close the homes, shops, schools and stations sit. Dartford is the most built up (1,605 people per square kilometre) and Ashford the least (229).

Younger council areas in Kent are loosely better off, which is common where a city draws working-age people. Areas above the line earn more than their age alone would suggest.

Areas towards the top right have the most children and the largest households: Dartford, Gravesham and Tonbridge and Malling lead for residents under fifteen. Towards the bottom left are the areas with more single people and couples.

In the middle council area of Kent, 19% of households rent privately. Cheaper areas clearly have more renters.

Thanet, Gravesham and Dartford have the highest walk scores in Kent. Denser areas are clearly more walkable, because more is close by; an area above the line is easier on foot than its density alone would suggest.

Another way to see how easy it is to get about is how many households manage without a car. In Thanet, 26% have none, the most in Kent. Areas towards the bottom right are where daily life depends least on driving.

A band D home pays £2,539 a year in Folkestone and Hythe, the most in Kent, and £2,375 in Dartford, the least: a difference of £164 every year for the same band.

A new home is banded when it is finished, so ask the builder which band each plot is expected to fall in.

Police recorded 120 crimes for every thousand residents in Thanet over the last year held, and 65 in Sevenoaks. City centres record more because of the people who visit them, not only those who live there, and a council area's figure hides wide differences between its streets.