Happiest places to live in the UK

I saw this earlier. All nice small towns with a few wealthy London boroughs added in. I would say all of these places are relatively expensive to live in for their local area which probably us a lot more to do with why people are quite so happy.

It’s nice that the article includes the avg house and avg rental costs. Interesting to see how they compare to some here in the US.

How do you think the costs compare to the US? Something to bear in mind is that salaries are way, way lower here than in the US, eg average teacher salary is equivalent to $44,000 or around half the average in America.

I don’t think that Britain is a particularly happy place at the moment. Costs are high as any visitor will know, salaries are low and public services and infrastructure are suffering from severe underfunding.

By the way, Brits are absolutely obsessed with property prices as evidenced by the number of TV shows that centre on buying and selling property.

From the list, Chorley (North West) seems to be the cheapest place to be happy, with homes at £197,199. The average rent, though, at £883, is relatively high compared to the average home price, looking at the other happy places on the list.

Oh, to be happy, wherever one lives.

Helen, just comparing some of the places listed with areas I am familiar with in Virginia, SC, and NC, many of the towns - especially those in Hexham, Monmouth, Skipton, Harrogate are pretty similar. Kendal and Stirling housing prices are actually a bit lower. Interesting to hear about teachers’ salaries there. (I’m a former teacher) In the district where I taught, the current starting salary for a public school teacher is 52k. The average public school teacher in the state of Virginia makes just under 60k, but to get to that range you’ll need to have 12-13 years of teaching experience. Buying a home here is very cost prohibitive for many, many people.

Finland seems to have the market on being a top place of contentment. They’ve been ranked number one for seven years running!

Note that Public School in the UK means private fee paying schools - just to confuse everyone. The 6th form is not year 6 in school either.

For UK teaching salaries- click :>https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/teacher-training-and-education/how-much-do-teachers-get-paid

That link shows starting salary here is $39k so significantly lower than in Virginia.

Living in the area I am pleased to see Kendal on the list, but am actually surprised by how relatively low the purchase and rental values are. Comparing Kendal to Hexham I would have expected them to be the opposite way round.
Kendal surprises me a little bit because the historic layout of the town means that both traffic and parking is a big problem, and a major local topic.

Kendal is also a very good town for tourists to stay in- within touching distance of the Lake District but outside the melee of the well known tourist hotspots.

I never quite believe these lists- you have to look at who compiled them and then question their motives. As a local who really knows places if I was expecting somewhere in the area to be on such a list it would have been one of the small towns in Furness (the old Lancashire north of the Sands) or somewhere like Sedbergh. There are probably insufficient house data prices (especially from one specific estate agent/realtor) for smaller places to qualify.

I actually had my house (sorry my parent's house) valued when Mum died by Rightmove, and their valuation was way off kilter (far too high given my local market).

I always take surveys like this with a great pinch of salt. They have to be very general and obviously anyone can be happy wherever they live and be sad even in Woodbridge. They are done primarily to promote whoever pays for the survey - in this case the property sales website RightMove.

That said, I am pleased to see that Chorley, very close to where I live is towards the top of the list! There was another survey a few years ago that gave South Ribble, the borough I live in, was the best place to live in the country. But, if you wait long enough all sorts of places will appear on one survey or another.

Helen quotes the starting salary for a teacher in the UK but the median salary for teachers is considerably more. It was £38,982 in 2021 and will have risen by now, almost certainly over £40,000. £38,982 is US$49,623.

I agree with both of you. I didn’t drill down to see the survey methodology behind this particular poll, but I am sure it’s numerous flaws. We enjoyed reading through it though, even knowing the information isn’t the Holy Grail, so the publication was successful I guess in running it.

One last question about teaching salary comparisons. In the US, most but not all (i. e, not in elite private schools in high dollar cities like DC, NYC, Boston, etc) private schools make less than their publicly government funded school counterparts. Now, the privates will try to compensate and make up the difference by offering such perks as free lunches for staff, reductions in tuition of staff members, etc. How do the two types of schooling teacher’s salaries compare in the UK? Just curious.

I'm finding this very interesting as well. In the US, a LOT depends on where you teach. My cousin has a Master's degree in Education, has been teaching for 20+ years and earns around $58,000 in Florida. In Ohio, a good friend of mine, who has the same degree and teaching experience earns around $80,000. In Minnesota, that goes up to over $100,000. Unfortunately, state residents vote on school levies, which pay for things like this, and the states that pay teachers the lowest do not value education.

mustlovedogs - the situation is similar in the UK, apart from the confusing names we use. Teachers in the state sector will often make more than those who are not. The latter will often choose to be in that sector as there will be smaller class sizes and fewer "difficult" pupils. They will also have typically shorter terms and therefore longer holidays. My eldest son is a Business Manager in a public (i.e. not state) primary school in London and his school offers staff and pupils meals by a 2 star Michelin chef, as he hired him!

I've just been looking at Washington State teachers pay out of interest. Although the data is public I am very uneasy at posting a link here (but it is easily findable by google search). There is a table giving the salary for every single named teacher (and other worker, even School Bus Driver or Janitor and up to Superintendent) in the state (filterable by district, grade etc), which varies significantly between each school board.
Looking at the School board I am especially familiar with it is very interesting indeed.

As a Brit I also find it very, very uneasy to have such depth of information in the public domain.

Knowing what other jobs are paid by the City Council in that particular location, like the Librarian and the Cemetery Superintendent (as for instances) my jaw has visibly dropped.

An interesting list (thanks for the link). Would be interesting to see how the locations compare for visits.

Here, as stated, teachers' salaries vary state to state and within each state there is a wide range. Here in Washington State (Seattle, 18th happiest city in US, June 2024) , there was a school funding court case a few years ago which increased K-12 teacher salaries. A friend told me that her mom retired about a year before her income would’ve essentially doubled. She had decades of experience. The teachers’ association is very strong. Washington is one of the highest paying states, but the salaries vary widely from area to area. A salary on the western side of the state can be close to double a salary on the eastern side. But the cost of living is higher on the west side, too.

And Stuart, as a former state educator at the local community college, I did not like that state incomes are public knowledge.

I would suggest that Washington is one of the greatest states to visit, and one of the best states to call home.

As a Brit I also find it very, very uneasy to have such depth of information in the public domain.

Because teachers are paid with public funds, that information is open to the public. Court case records are also open to the public, although financial records are usually sealed. There is a lot of information in the US that is considered a public record and as such, is open to the public to see.

Personally I like it that way. It's when information becomes hidden that you run into corruption. Not that the US is never corrupt, lol! But it does make it harder to hide.

And CamAnCherie, Minneapolis was considered the #1 happiest city in the US in June 2024. :-) Minnesotans are taxed much more than many other states, but the residents get a lot of benefits from those taxes. I don't mind paying them when I see the teachers getting paid more, lots of public parks in the cities, free breakfast and lunches for ALL school kids, not just those with reduced incomes. It puts its money where its mouth is. :-)

You're right, of course, Mardee. Public funds should be public...just didn't like it when it was mine! LOL

Yes, the benefits are worth the extra dollars into the system---adding to quality of life. We weren't quite able to pass the free lunches for all, but most who request free lunch can partake, here.

And at least you don't have those frigid snowy winters we do!

Another survey has the UK as the happiest country ,make of that what you will.
Another survey in the Standard today has both Sheffield and Yorkshire accents as in the top ten sexy.
As a native of Sheffield,Yorkshire this seems self evident .

The Craven district on the southern end of the Dales was voted the Happiest place to live last year

And at least you don't have those frigid snowy winters we do!

Keeping this travel related, I have a very ongoing discussion about going to WA in the winter, given that a significant part of my visit would be to Upper Kittitas County where things are substantially colder and snowier than on the coast. And are increasingly hot in the summer. Given that I end in the Tri-Cities which really baked this summer that is a matter of planning.

We no longer get proper winters in the UK. Given the underlying purpose of going there I am substantially less fussed about the winter conditions than my host. And I am aware of how the winters, even in WA, are so much less severe than they were when the immigrants from Cumberland and elsewhere originally arrived there a century or so ago. In some ways I think I should experience the severity of a true winter up there. Like January 2022, notably.

If I purely hypothetically came to Duluth there I would be a true tourist where people's pay doesn't matter one jot to me.

In WA I can never be that true and simple tourist detached from true reality. Just this morning from my Church in Seattle I have been catching up on a meeting earlier this week about homelessness and hunger in the City and the Christian response to that.

Whatever the true figures for Kendal and other parts of the UK unseen by tourists there are very substantial issues of a lack of affordable housing for the locals in the Lakes. That in some ways does affect the tourist experience in terms of a shortage of staff (or staff having to travel very long distances to work).

Richard, that input on the accents is def good for tourism, don’t you think? ;) Great scenery and history, dear sheep, friendly faces and… sexy accents! What can be better? Lol

Modest locals....