Happy Highlands loses top spot

Index: Region down one place to second in ratings of Scotland’s cheeriest places to live

This time last year, we were laughing.

But residents of the Highlands had the smile wiped from their faces yesterday when they were knocked off the top of the happiness table – by Fife.

A year on from the first Happiness Index from Bank of Scotland, the Kingdom has taken the top spot for the cheeriest region in Scotland, pushing the Highlands into second place.

The Index quantifies how happy Scots are in the communities in which they live and, although Highlanders scored higher than last year, they were pipped by Fife, which has cheered up enormously since 2015.

And as for Aberdeen and the northeast, they came in at seventh and ninth respectively out of 11. Dundee was last. Rachel Bright, Bank of Scotland’s head of customer service, said: “This year, Fife’s happiness score has increased more than 20 points, putting them at the top of the Happiness Index and pushing the Highlands into second place. There has been a slight increase in the overall happiness score for Scotland

“There has been a slight increase in the overall happiness score”

as a whole, with women remaining happier than men. As we saw last year, happiness increases with age, and pensioners are once more the happiest age group in Scotland.”

Fife has made a marked improvement in the past 12 months, jumping from a happiness score of +35.56 in 2015 to +56.56 this year. This is well above the Scotland average of +40.43.

The Highlands is now the second happiest region in Scotland, with a happiness score of +50.56. However, this is still an improvement on last year’s score of +47.73.

Dundonians are least happy living in their community, falling from a 2015 happiness score of +44.3 to +31.01 this year. Central is second least happy (+33.23) followed by north-east Scotland (+33.85).

There has been a slight increase in the overall happiness score for Scotland, which is now +40.43 compared with +39.02 last year. Again, it’s women (+43.09) who are happier than men (+37.52), with both seeing a slight improvement on last year (men +36.15 women +41.62).

HAPPIEST: A fishing harbour on the east coast of Fife, which has topped an index rating happiness