Which are the UK's best cities to live in?
Edinburgh is officially the best city in the UK. A new study has revealed that people living in Scotland's capital have a better quality of life than those in any of the country's other big cities. At the other end of the spectrum, however, Birmingham picked up the less impressive title of the worst city in the UK. London didn't fare much better either.
The study was done by MoneySuperMarket, which judged the 12 biggest cites in the country on a range of economic indicators. These included house price affordability; affordability of rental costs; salaries; disposable income; cost of living; unemployment rates and life satisfaction.
The best
Edinburgh took the top spot. The researchers said it did well on every measure, however, they particularly highlighted that people in Edinburgh take home the highest average annual salary outside of London, while benefiting from a much lower cost of living.
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It also pointed out that rents remained reasonably affordable. The average asking price of rent in Edinburgh (£1,099) takes up just over half of the annual salary (52%).
This result may not come as a huge shock to anyone living in Edinburgh, especially as a separate study last month also named it as the best place to live in the UK. What's particularly remarkable was that the other study looked at completely different things, including crime, the price of petrol and the cost of energy, and still Edinburgh took the title.
Belfast was named as the second best place to live, benefiting particularly from a low unemployment rate - at 6.5%. The Northern Irish capital also has the highest life satisfaction score (7.65) of all the 12 cities, up from 7.28 in 2014.
Cardiff was third. The city has a low cost of living, with an average weekly household expenditure of £384.60 against an average of £426.30. It also boasts an above average amount of disposable income - £16,520 per head.
The worst
At the other end of the spectrum, Birmingham performed poorly across the board - coming in below average on 5 of the 7 measures. Birmingham also has the lowest disposable income of £13,575 a year per person.
London takes second place. Despite the highest salary by quite some margin, those in the capital suffer by far the highest living costs, and such enormous rental costs that the average rent makes up a shocking 93% of the average salary. Houses are also the furthest from reach - with the average home 14.2 times the average salary.
Liverpool, meanwhile, comes in third from the bottom. The UK's seventh largest city has seen unemployment rate falling from 12.1% to 10.6% in the last year. Despite this, it still has the highest number of unemployed adults of the 12 cities, as well as the lowest life satisfaction score.
Life is apparently getting better
There's good news for even those at the very bottom of the pile, however. Kevin Pratt, Consumer Finance Expert at MoneySuperMarket, points out: "Overall, the UK's largest cities perform well in the Quality of Living index. While in some cases, salaries have fallen slightly and the cost of living has risen, hitting some cities hard, life satisfaction scores are generally higher across the board compared to last year."
"What's more, these cities have benefited from falling unemployment, a decrease in rent and a rise in disposable income over the last year. Added to this, property prices are on the rise again, so many home owners are seeing their properties increase in value. So there are many reasons for British city-dwellers to be happy, not just those living in Edinburgh."
The 12 largest cities - from best to worst
1. Edinburgh
2. Belfast
3. Cardiff
4. Leeds
5. Sheffield
6. Bradford
7. Bristol
8. Glasgow
9. Manchester
10. Liverpool
11. London
12. Birmingham
But what do you think? Do you agree with this ranking? And does life really feel like it is getting better? Let us know in the comments.
