The UK’s most miserable places have been revealed, with locations in Essex and Worcestershire ranking bottom
13 December 2022, 16:29
Colchester has officially been rated the UK’s most miserable place to live, ranking bottom of the Government’s ‘happiness index’.
Compiled by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the nationwide survey saw residents rank their happiness levels out of a maximum of 10.
With the average happiness score of residents coming in at 6.8, it ranks well below the UK's average happiness rating of 7.45, with the newly appointed Essex city reporting the lowest happiness score of anywhere in the country.
The former Roman capital of Britain, Colchester's history dates back some 2000 years - with the former town gifted modern city status as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022.
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Colchester appears notably lower down the happiness list than neighbouring towns, including Babergh (7.8) and Briantree (7.7).
Redditch, located in Worcestershire, ranked second in the list behind the Essex city, closely followed by Norwich - whose residents were noted as being among the most anxious in the country according to the same survey.
Once a manufacturing hub, the town was the only town to come in the bottom five for all four criteria categories.
In a somewhat unlikely turn of events, however, a town in the picturesque Garden of England also featured as part of the list.
The Kent town of Tunbridge Wells ranked as the fourth unhappiest town in the country, followed closely behind the grey London borough of Lambeth.
Home to hotspots including Waterloo Station, Brixton's Electric Avenue and The Oval cricket ground.
Conversely, Torridge, north Devon, came out on top, achieving the highest rating of all the locations surveyed and claiming the title of the UK’s happiest place.
The Lancashire town of Pendle ranked close behind, as did the cathedral city of Lichfield in Staffordshire - renowned for The National Memorial Arboretum and Drayton Manor Park.
The Top 5 unhappiest places in the UK
- Colchester, Essex
- Redditch, Worcestershire
- Norwich
- Tunbridge Wells
- Lambeth
The Top 5 happiest places in the UK
- Torridge, North Devon
- Pendle, Lancashire
- Lichfield, Birmingham
- Hambleton, north Yorkshire
- Newry, Mourne and Down, Northern Ireland
