Orkney best place in Scotland to live – official

Orkney is the best place in Scotland to live and second in the UK, according a new survey.

The islands retain their top ranking in the Bank of Scotland’s latest quality of life survey, which cited high employment, low crime and the large number of pubs among the reasons.

Shetland came second, ahead of the Western Isles, in the Scottish table.

But Orkney is the only Scottish location in the UK’s top 20 – topped by the Hampshire district of Hart – after Shetland fell 52 places to 70th.

Orcadians were found to be the happiest adults in Scotland, scoring 8.2 out of 10 in the survey, compared with the Scottish average of 7.6.

They are also the most satisfied with life, scoring 8.3, while 96.6% of adults claim to enjoy good or fairly good health compared to a national average of 94.6%.

Orkney has the highest per pupil spending in the UK at £9,662 – almost twice the Scottish average of £5,928 and more than double the UK spend of £4,645 per pupil.

Orkney’s residents enjoy the second highest proportion of pubs in Scotland, with 20 per 10,000 adults, behind Argyll and Bute which has 25 per 10,000.

The Western Isles boast the lowest traffic levels in the UK with just 80 vehicles per square kilometre, and also the UK’s lowest burglary rate at just 2.2 per 10,000 people.

Graham Blair, mortgage director at Bank of Scotland, said: “It’s great to see Orkney retain its title of best place to live in Scotland and the second-best place to live in the whole of the UK.

“Looking at the differences between the 2016 and 2017 results Aberdeen City has seen a drop from 11th to 17 th in the (Scottish) rankings despite retaining the title of sunniest place in Scotland.”