Blaby is the happiest place to live in county
BLABY is the happiest place in Leicestershire.
People in the area rated their happiness levels at an average of 8.1 out of 10 in 2017/18, according to the Government’s wellbeing survey.
Happiness levels there were up from 7.7 out of 10 in 2016/17 and are at their highest levels since the survey began.
In comparison, people in Leicester were the least happy locally, giving an average rating of 7.3 out of 10, down from 7.3 in 2016/17.
One in 10 people in Leicester rate their happiness levels as low, with 10.3% of people giving a score of four out of 10 or less when asked how happy they were.
In comparison, in Blaby, 44.1% of people gave a score of 9 or 10.
Blaby covers many villages and towns including Sapcote, Stoney Stanton and Sharnford.
In terms of who in Leicester and Leicestershire feels most anxious, people in Oadby and Wigston gave the highest score, at 3.6 out of 10, while those in Charnwood were the least anxious, with a score of 2.5 out of 10.
In Melton, three in 10 people (29.8%) said they had experi- Area Leicester Leicestershire Blaby Charnwood Harborough Hinckley & Bos. Melton North West Leic. Oadby & Wigston Life satisfaction 7.44 7.75 7.92 7.84 7.81 7.61 7.74 7.64 7.54
enced high levels of anxiety the previous day, giving a score of six or more out of 10, while it was 22.5% in Leicester, up from 17.5% in 2016/17.
People in Blaby were the most likely to feel satisfied with life, scoring satisfaction levels at 7.9 out of 10, while those in Leicester gave the lowest rating locally at 7.4 out of 10.
In terms of feeling life is worthwhile, people in Blaby are the most positive, giving a score of 8.2 out of 10, while those in Leicester gave the lowest score at 7.6 out of 10.
For the UK as a whole, Rushmoor in Berkshire is the place where people gave the highest score to the question “how happy were you yesterday”.
Respondents rated their average happiness as 8.4 out of 10 in 2017/18, up from 7.8 in 2016/17, meaning the area overtakes Craven in North Yorkshire, which was the happiest place in 2016/17, as the happiest place in Life worthwhile 7.55 8.05 8.19 8.16 7.86 8 8.02 8.01 7.98 Happy 7.27 7.7 8.11 7.63 7.82 7.66 7.51 7.36 7.8
the UK.
People in Fenland are the least likely to give high marks for happiness the day before, with people there scoring an average of 6.7 out of 10.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show people in Rushmoor also have the highest life satisfaction, rating it as 8.6 out of 10, while people in Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire have the lowest, 7.1 out of 10.
For feeling life is worthwhile, again people in Rushmoor gave the highest rating at 8.7 out of 10, while the lowest was in Bromley at 7.4.
People in Broxbourne in Hertfordshire felt the most anxious, scoring levels the previous day at 3.9 out of 10, while those in Lisburn and Castlereagh in Northern Ireland were the least anxious, scoring at just 1.9 out of 10.
Across the UK, average ratings across the four measures of personal well-being in 2017/18 Anxious 3.3 2.97 2.58 2.52 2.77 3.39 3.56 3.21 3.63
were: 7.7 out of 10 for life satisfaction, 7.9 out of 10 for feeling that what you do in life is worthwhile, 7.5 out of 10 for happiness yesterday and 2.9 out of 10 for anxiety yesterday.
The average ratings across the four measures of personal wellbeing in the UK were unchanged compared to the previous year.
However, average ratings of feeling the things done in life are worthwhile increased in Scotland; this was driven by a higher percentage of people reporting very high levels for this measure.
Compared with the UK, a larger percentage of people in Wales reported low levels of happiness and feeling what they do is worthwhile.
Interestingly, a larger proportion of people in Wales reported both low levels of life satisfaction but also very high levels of life satisfaction, suggesting greater disparity in life satisfaction in Wales compared with the UK overall.
Compared with both the UK and the other countries, people in Northern Ireland continued to report better average ratings across all personal well-being measures.
Silvia Manclossi, Head of Quality of Life Team at the ONS, said: “An important part of our work is looking beyond the economic health of the country to how its people are faring and inequalities in society.
“Today, for the first time, we have identified how factors such as health, access to services and crime levels may affect how people rate their well-being in different parts of the UK.
“This can help local authorities and other organisations to better understand where services could be targeted to help improve the well-being of people in their area.”
The four personal well-being questions are:
Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays?
Overall, to what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?
People are asked to respond on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is “not at all” and 10 is “completely”.