The happiest and unhappiest places to live in Britain 2024

Woodbridge named the happiest place to live, while Slough came bottom of the table. Read on to see how your area fared.

Are you happy with where you live?

If you're in Woodbridge, chances are you’re positively doolally with your lot in life.

That's according to a new study by property portal Rightmove, which looked into the places where local residents are happiest and put the Suffolk town top of the pile.

As part of the study, thousands of people across the nation were quizzed on how they feel about 15 factors so that each town could be awarded an overall score.

Those factors include:

• Whether there is a sense of community spirit;

• Whether there is a sense of belonging;

• Are people friendly and polite?

• Are there sports and recreational activities available?

• Are there job opportunities?

• Can I afford to live there?

• The availability of essential local services and non-essential amenities.

And those answers were analysed by Rightmove to work out which towns have the happiest residents.

The happiest places to live 2024

Woodbridge came out top in the latest survey, having jumped from 17th in last year's report to push 2023 winner Richmond down into second place.

Rightmove praised Woodbridge for its bustling high street, as well as its close access to stunning natural scenery and countryside.

It added: "For over a decade we’ve been asking residents what makes them feel happy about where they live, as feeling happy is about more than the home itself.

"First-placed Woodbridge appears to have a lot of the factors that people are looking for from an area, including being close to a river, and a national landscape."

Here’s how the top 20 areas look, according to the study.

Rightmove pointed out that those living in rural areas were more likely to be happy than those living in cities.

This was true of those who were living in areas near national parks or areas of outstanding natural beauty, but also those closer to woodlands, mountains and the coast, compared with respondents in more built-up areas.

When looking at the regions, Scotland, Wales, and the South West of England were found to be the happiest overall, while East and West Midlands residents were less so.

What about the unhappiest places?

Of the 220 places ranked by Rightmove, Slough in Berkshire ranked lowest of all in the happiness tables. 

It was followed by Bradford in Yorkshire then the London Borough of Barking & Dagenham.

 An interesting note about the areas ranking lowest in the happiness index is how expensive it is to live in many of them. 

In total, six of the 10 'unhappiest' towns have average house prices well above the UK national average of £282,000 as you can see in the table below.

See how your area fared

While we've highlighted the best and worst performers above, you may well want to take a look at how other towns and areas performed in the latest happiness index.

You can visit the Rightmove Happy at Home page and click on the map to see the top-performing locations in your region.