Leamington Spa is the happiest place to live in the UK
Britain’s spa towns are among the nation’s happiest towns, according to Rightmove’s 2017 Happy at Home Index.
Royal Leamington Spa in Warwickshire topped the poll of more than 17,000 people across the UK who were asked to rank their home town on 12 happiness factors. The No.2 spot went to Leigh-on-Sea in Essex, followed by Wirral on Merseyside.
In the London area, Richmond upon Thames took the happiest place title, with Dumfries claiming Scotland’s No.1 spot and Llandrindod Wells doing the same in Wales.
Four of Britain’s spa towns were in the top 10 – Royal Leamington Spa in top spot followed by three-time winner Harrogate in fourth, Royal Tunbridge Wells in fifth and Epsom in seventh place. Wales’ happiest town is also a spa town and just missed out on making the top 10, landing in 12 place. Cheltenham was in 29th place with Bath in 38th.
Town has strong sense of belonging
Leamington Spa’s fans pointed to its friendly neighbours, strong sense of belonging and good access to nature and green spaces as the factors that helped make it such a happy place to stay.
If you fancy sampling some of what makes Leamington Spa such a cheerful spot to live, the average asking price for a home there is £330,848, up almost £20,000 on 2016 and 20,000 more than the national average asking price of £310,003.
Abiola Oni, research manager with Rightmove, said: “We’ve looked at the connection between each of the factors and what contributes to how happy people say they are overall, and it’s the people in an area and how someone feels about living there that makes the biggest difference.
“So the strength of community spirit, people feeling like they belong and that they can be themselves are all more important than the services and money that they have, though these do still contribute to overall happiness.”
The Top 10 Happiest Places in Britain
- Leamington Spa, West Midlands
- Leigh-on-Sea, East of England
- Wirral, North-West
- Harrogate, Yorkshire
- Tunbridge Wells, South-East
- Kings Lynn, East of England
- Epsom, South-East
- Richmond upon Thames, Greater London
- Poole, South-West
- Chichester, South-East
