Where’s the happiest place to live in the UK?

London dominates the list of grimmest places to live but where's the happiest?

March 27, 2013

Harrogate has come out top as Britain’s happiest place to live according to a survey by property website Rightmove.com. Researchers quizzed 40,000 people on 12 different factors such as neighbourliness, safety, amenities, cost, and the amount of space they have in their home. Although not coming top for any of these measures  the north Yorkshire spa town scored the highest overall average. Stockport, just outside Manchester came in second, and it is perhaps not surprising that house prices here rose 4.5% over the last 12 months, the largest increase of any area outside London.

Speaking of the capital, 9 out of the bottom 10 locations were in London. East London was declared the least happy place to live followed by Croydon and east Central London. Even traditionally wealthier areas like North London made the bottom 10.

Explaining the reasoning behind the research, a spokesman for Rightmove said: “We felt that various house price index data reports say prices in a location have gone up/down etc, but don’t actually tell real people whether that location would make for a happy place to live … which feels like quite important information when choosing somewhere to live.”

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