Daily Mirror

Many happy returns to the countrysid­e...

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Several times a year, I repair to my bolthole in a small village on the coast of Northumber­land, where I spent my childhood. It’s a happy place and just the right antidote to busy, noisy, grimy London.

It’s beautiful, which helps, and it’s hardly changed from the way it was when I went to school there.

What makes it so magical? I think it’s the sense of community. Everyone knows everyone else and everyone cares.

When I arrive, I trot up the village street and drop in to the shops to say: “Hi, I’m back” for a few joyful minutes of chat. It feels like family. It’s this quality, Canadian researcher­s say, that gives country living a considerab­le edge over town life. In fact, it offers eight times the happiness.

Cities have higher salaries, higher education levels and lower unemployme­nt rates, but when the researcher­s surveyed 400,000 people across Canada using a happiness scale, they found those things meant nothing in terms of joy.

People who lived in the countrysid­e were, on average, eight times happier than people in urban areas.

The researcher­s attributed the findings to the undeniable importance of strong communitie­s over social isolation. Life is significan­tly less happy in urban areas. To assess happiness, the researcher­s asked people how satisfied they were with their lives on a scale of one to 10.

In general, most people scored between 7.04 and 8.94 – just 5% fell below a rating of five out of 10.

They found that people in cities were 800% less happy than those in small towns or rural areas. The reasons for this, the authors said, are many, but are mainly driven by the lack of a strong community base.

There’s a raft of informatio­n showing that city-dwellers tend not to have as much regular contact with family or friends.

And, as a recent study found, social isolation can literally change the brain. It floods the brain with a chemical which fuels fear and aggression.

City-dwellers also tend to spend more of their income – at least 30% – on housing, which is a source of stress.

One Toronto therapist said people in urban areas tend to feel less safe, even subconscio­usly.

“There isn’t the same feeling of safety,” said Lesli Musicar.

“People are generally less trusting. There’s a heterogene­ous population, it’s not a homogeneou­s population, it’s not like in a small town where there is a lot more commonalit­y.”

Or like my childhood village, where everyone knows everyone else.

 ??  ?? It’s the right antidote to noisy London
It’s the right antidote to noisy London

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