Good Broadband Helps Survey Find Top 50 Best UK Places to Live – 2019

The 2019 Halifax Quality of Life Survey (Bank of Scotland) has just been published, which balances a combination of broadband speed, health, crime rate, weather, employment, happiness and skills in order to identify the best places to live in the UK. Once again Orkney in Scotland comes top of the list.

According to the report, residents of the Orkney Islands benefit from an above average employment rate of (9 out of 10 people aged 16 to 64 are in work), as well as good health, low traffic congestion on the roads and locals also tend to mark themselves as being some of the happiest in the country.

Broadband connectivity also plays its part in the ranking as one of the measures (based on data from Ofcom), but this is one area where Orkney does tend to fall short. At present only around two thirds of the islands can access “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) speeds and more than a quarter can only get sub-10Mbps (USO level) speeds via fixed ISP networks.

Admittedly Halifax has a problem on this front since the bank tends to use a fairly weak definition for good broadband (i.e. “the proportion of premises able to receive 5Mbps“), although sadly the report doesn’t show us how much of an impact internet connectivity has actually had for each of the top listed areas.

2019 Top UK Local Authority Districts for Quality of Life

– South Oxfordshire, South East
– Rutland, East Midlands
– St Albans, East of England
– Wychavon, West Midlands
– Westminster, London
– Cotswold, South West
– Richmondshire, Yorkshire and the Humber
– Monmouthshire, Wales
– Orkney, Scotland
– Eden, North West
– Lisburn and Castlereagh, Northern Ireland
– Northumberland, North East

2019 Top 50 UK Areas for Quality of Life
1. Orkney, Scotland
2. Richmondshire, Yorkshire and the Humber
3. Rutland, East Midlands
4. Hambleton, Yorkshire and the Humber
5. Eden, North West
6. South Oxfordshire, South East
7. Cotswold, South West
8. Ryedale, Yorkshire and the Humber
9. St Albans, East of England
10. Derbyshire Dales, East Midlands
11. Vale of White Horse, South East
12. Waverley, South East
13. Hart, South East
14. East Hertfordshire, East of England
15. Westminster, London
16. Winchester, South East
17. Rushmoor, South East
18. Uttlesford, East of England
19. Wychavon, West Midlands
20. Harborough, East Midlands
21. South Cambridgeshire, East of England
22. Rushcliffe, East Midlands
23. Ribble Valley, North West
24. Surrey Heath, South East
25. Wokingham, South East
26. Harrogate, Yorkshire and the Humber
27. Babergh, East of England
28. West Oxfordshire, South East
29. South Buckinghamshire, South East
30. Windsor and Maidenhead, South East
31. Warwick, West Midlands
32. Elmbridge, South East
33. Chichester, South East
34. Stratford-on-Avon, West Midlands
35. Lichfield, West Midlands
36. Malvern Hills, West Midlands
37. Rochford, East of England
38. Chiltern, South East
39. Shetland, Scotland
40. Richmond-upon-Thames, London
41. West Berkshire, South East
42. Basingstoke and Deane, South East
43. South Hams, South West
44. Fareham, South East
45. St Edmundsbury, East of England
46. Wycombe, South East
47. Mid Suffolk, East of England
48. Monmouthshire, Wales
49. Daventry, East Midlands
50. Selby, Yorkshire and the Humber