It's not so grim up north: Happiness survey finds 9 out of 10 unhappiest towns are down SOUTH

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Jun 29, 2008
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They may have less sunshine and colder weather on the whole.
But people up North are much happier with the area where they live than their counterparts in the South, a survey has shown.
Researchers assessed how residents felt about their area, the size and condition of homes, neighbourliness and safety levels among 12 measurements of happiness.



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Happy town: Carlisle in Cumbria scored highest - taking the top spot on the happiest towns list


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Shopping parade on the Sholver estate in Oldham - which was the sixth unhappiest place to live in the UK



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The happiest and the unhappiest

The five towns or cities that came out best were all in the North of England, with Carlisle scoring highest, followed by York, Huddersfield, Harrogate and Chester.

The only southern towns in the top ten were Norwich, Dorchester and Exeter. Llandudno in Wales and Derby in the East Midlands completed the list.
By contrast, nine of the ten lowest-scoring towns, cities or areas were in the South, according to the survey from property website Rightmove.


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Life's a beach: Llandudno in North Wales came in sixth place in the happiest towns survey



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Residents in Luton, Bedfordshire, were the fourth unhappiest in the UK

The East London area was given the lowest scores, followed by Ilford, South East London, Luton and Romford.
Oldham was the only northern town in the bottom ten of the sites Happy At Home Index.
Rightmove director Miles Shipside said: The index attempts to measure how we feel about where we live by taking into account the relationship we have with our property, our home and our community.
'Traditional property market measures, such as price trends and transaction volumes, are both valuable and fascinating, but both fall short of treating property as a home.

'This extensive study of over 25,000 people across the UK gives an insight into how happy at home we are as a nation and which factors provide us with the most contentment.


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Historical: Shopping and sightseeing in Stonegate, York, which was listed as the second happiest place to live in the UK



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Enfield, in Greater London, also made the list of unhappy towns in seventh place


He added: Our research provides an interesting challenge to the typical view of the North/South divide.
Neither Carlisle nor the North regularly features at the top of too many property market league tables. But this does not appear to be playing on the minds of those who live there too much.
Householders were asked to score where they lived in several categories.

High house prices in the capital clearly hit the quality of life people could afford, with East London coming lowest for decor, pride and safety, while North London was bottom-ranked on space.

Carlisle came top in the decor and investment categories, and happy residents in Dorchester came out top for safety, recreation and neighbourliness.

But householders may have reason to change their minds about where they prefer to live soon.
Employment prospects are starting to looking worse in the North, while they have actually improved slightly in the South of England.

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Quaint: Norwich, in Norfolk, was the seventh happiest place to live



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Low rating: Harrow, Greater London, just made the unhappiest towns list coming in tenth place


Gerwyn Davies, Public Policy Adviser at the CIPD, said: 'Whereas employers were in "wait and see" mode three months ago, more private sector firms, particularly among private sector services firms, have decided to push the redundancy button in response to worsening economic news.

'This will exert yet more pressure on a jobs market that is buckling under the strains of contractions in economic growth and public sector employment.

'The fear is that these existing pressures, which include a widening chasm between the employment prospects of those in the north and the south, will become greater still if business conditions do not improve in the next few months.'
 
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