West Bay's streets are dominated by detached houses with boats in view and the kind of quiet that comes from a population you could fit into a village hall. This is a small, settled corner of the Dorset coast, and it looks it: solid stone-and-render houses, a working harbour feel rather than a resort strip, and a noticeable absence of the churn you'd find in a bigger town. The numbers behind that impression are telling. A median age in the mid-60s says this is a place people retire to, or move to once the commuting years are behind them — not somewhere you'd base a young family around a daily rail journey. Property here is overwhelmingly detached and freehold, and a median sale price sitting well above both the Dorset and national norm confirms that a "For Sale" board on one of these streets means a proper house, not a starter flat; there's barely a leasehold or new-build in sight. Income and deprivation figures put West Bay near the top of the national scale — this is one of the more comfortable corners of the country, not a struggling one. Day-to-day life here is shaped by the coast rather than a high street of chain restaurants — green space and the harbour do the work that parks might do elsewhere, and the pace suits people who came for the view rather than the nightlife, even though the nightlife grade holds up better than you'd expect for somewhere this size. Crime is low in absolute terms, and anti-social behaviour makes up roughly half of what little there is, which in a village-sized population usually means a handful of incidents rather than a pattern to worry about — the safety grade here is about as strong as they come, and it's paired with an equally strong environment score, so the sense of calm isn't just anecdotal. Schools score respectably rather than exceptionally, which matters less here than it would in a place with more children. This suits people who've made peace with a slower rhythm and a smaller world: retirees, second-homers, and anyone who values sea air and space over convenience and choice. It suits less well anyone needing an easy rail commute, a wide school choice, or the buzz of a larger town on the doorstep — those trade-offs are the price of the quiet.