Top 50 Places To Live In The UK Revealed - And They're All In England

A list of the 50 best places to live in the UK has been unveiled - and they’re all in England.

Hart in Hampshire tops the list for the fifth year in a row, as it’s considered to offer residents the best overall quality of life.

Halifax’s 2015 Quality of Life Survey scored local authority districts across a range of criteria, including employment, crime rates and the health and life-expectancy of residents.

In second place was South Oxfordshire - up 19 places on last year - followed by Chilton, Winchester and Rutland, East Midlands.

The Top 20: The South East was well represented in the list (Halifax)

The north fared almost as badly as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland however, with Hambleton, North Yorkshire, being the first place to make the cut at number 35.

The most highly rated Welsh region was Monmouthshire, in 61st place, while the first Scottish place to feature was the Orkney Islands, which came 83rd out of 250.

Things were bleaker over the Channel however, with Mid-Ulster faring best for Northern Ireland, in 168th place.

The Hart of the matter: The Hampshire district topped the chart for the fifth year running (Google)

So what’s so good about Hart? Well, according to the survey, its residents are, on average the healthiest in the UK, with 97 per cent saying they’re in good health.

Their life expectancy is also among the highest in the country - an average of 86.6 years for women and 82.4 years for men.

Based on the latest ONS survey on personal well-being, Hart dwellers also rate themselves among the happiest, most satisfied and least anxious in the country, believing what they do is worthwhile.

The area also boasts a high unemployment rate - 84.5 per cent, compared to a national average of 72.9 per cent - and average gross weekly earnings of £865, 37 per cent above the national average of £630.

Happy people: Fleet is another part of the Hampshire district (Google)

The crime rate is also low, with 9.5 burglaries per 10,000 people – the national average is 29.6 national average.

The weather’s better in Hart too, with 32.5 hours of sunshine per week, compared to an average of 29.5 for the UK, and it rains less (just 738mm for Hart, way below the UK average of 879mm).

Martin Ellis, housing economist at Halifax, said: “A mixture of good health, high wealth and a generally happy life continues to cement Hart’s place as the best place to live in the UK.

“Low crime rates, good weather, and a long life expectancy all play an important part in keeping this Hampshire district at the top of the pile.

"Many areas in south eastern England also perform well in terms of average earnings, employment rates, health and the weather.

"But the South doesn’t have it all its own way, and there are areas in the North which score highly on school exam results, and physical environment characteristics such as low population densities and low traffic flows.”

It’s no surprise that the highest weekly average earnings - a whopping £1,238 per week - are in Kensington & Chelsea.

The biggest homes are in Uttlesford in Essex, Chiltern, South Buckinghamshire and Rutland, which have an average of 6.4 habitable rooms apiece.

The smallest homes are in the City of London, Tower Hamlets, and Westminster, which all have fewer than four habitable rooms, compared to a UK average of 5.5.

Life expectancy for males at birth is highest in Kensington and Chelsea (83.3 years), while for women it’s Chiltern and Camden (both 86.7 years).

Meanwhile, the Orkney Islands has the lowest burglary rate per 10,000 people (5.1), and the sunniest place to live is the Isle of Wight, which has an average of 36.9 hours of sunshine each week.

(Top picture: the village of Hartley Wintney in Hart district, Hampshire (Google))