UK’s most UNHAPPY regions revealed as Brits share their biggest moans about where they live – how does yours rank?
THE North East of England is officially Britain’s unhappiest region.
Geordies are more dissatisfied with their area than anyone else, blaming bad roads and dodgy Wi-Fi.
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Those in Northumberland, Durham and Tyne and Wear are also complaining of a lack of good GPs and not enough good-paying jobs, new research shows.
The West Midlands is just ahead, followed by North West at 10th and Yorkshire and the Humber at 9th.
But the West Country takes the top spot as the happiest region of all.
According to the survey, residents in sunny South West England are the happiest where they live.
Three quarters of people in Bristol, Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire would apparently not want to call anywhere else their home.
Closely followed by the Southeast, where 73 percent of people describe their neighborhood as a happy place to live.
These include Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Surrey and West Sussex.
And bronze goes to London, the largest city in Great Britain, home to around nine million people.
Apparently, what makes these regions better than the rest is good connections.
It comes down to having a good doctor’s office nearby, having access to parks, and having reliable cell phone service.
Decent WiFi, roads without potholes and above-average job prospects are not neglected either.
Although the North East emerged as the unhappiest region, Newcastle was voted the most welcoming city – 35 per cent of people use the word ‘friendly’ to describe it.
Sheffield, Birmingham, Cardiff and Brighton were the only other UK cities where ‘friendly’ was selected as one of the top three related terms.
Respondents chose Glasgow as ‘historic’, Sheffield as ‘industrial’ and, as expected, London as ‘expensive’.
They also described Brighton as “alive” and Cardiff simply as “rugby”.
The survey of 20,000 people was conducted by Legal & General as part of the Rebuilding Building Britain Index.
What has the greatest impact on happiness in a local area?
- 62% – Access to high-quality basic medical care (family doctor, pharmacy, dentist)
- 50% – availability for public green spaces (parks, forests and allotments)
- 47% – Cellular network signal reliability
- 45% – Internet speed at home
- 44% – Local roads (congestion level and road surface quality)
- 42% – Internet data reliability of mobile network
- 40% – availability of well-paying employment
- 39% – total housing market
- 34% – Access to quality secondary care, such as community hospital care such as midwives
- 32% – A thriving local high street
The most common words used to describe British cities
- LONDON – Expensive
- SHEFFIELD – Industrial
- BIRMINGHAM—Industrial
- GLASGOW – Historical
- BRISTOL – Historical
- NEWCASTLE – Football
- CARDIFF – Rugby
- LEEDS- SOCCER
- EDINBURGH – Historical
- BRIGHTON – Lively
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