Where are the best rural areas to live in the UK?

People living in the Orkney Islands enjoy the best quality of life of any rural area in the UK, a new survey has revealed.

According to the 2016 Halifax Rural Areas Quality of Life Survey, the Orkney Islands came top after scoring strongly in the categories of employment rate, average earnings and average spend per pupil on education.

Low anxiety levels, crime rate, and high scores in factors related to well-being and leisure also helped it to do well.

In second place was Wychavon while the Derbyshire Dales region was third.

The highest average school spend per pupil is in the Orkney Islands is £9,281 – more than twice Great Britain’s average of £4,662.

The Orkney Islands has the lowest burglary rate per 10,000 people (2.3) followed by Western Isles (4.8), Shetland Islands (6.0) and West Oxfordshire (6.9). The UK average is 28.7 per 10,000.

Adults in the Orkney Islands are also the least anxious with an average rating of 1.9, compared with the UK average of 2.8.

The inhabitants of Wychavon in Worcestershire have the second best quality of life. It scored well on a number of measures, with a high average male and female life expectancy of – 81.2 years and 84.5 years respectively, and 95% of adults report themselves to be in good health.

Wychavon residents have some of the biggest homes in rural Great Britain, with an average of 6.1 habitable rooms of which 98% have central heating and 92% of all houses have superfast broadband.

Derbyshire Dales, Hambleton and Purbeck in Dorset complete the top five – all performing well in terms of personal well-being and life expectancy.

Last year’s winner, South Oxfordshire, has dropped to 10th in the 2017 survey, but still scores strongly on earnings, employment rate and a low crime rate.

This is mainly due to the inclusion of the two new categories – number of pubs and the availability of health clubs and leisure centres.

Martin Ellis, economist at Halifax, said: “With one of the lowest population densities and traffic levels in Scotland, some of the most stunning scenery in the British Isles and the lowest levels of anxiety and highest life satisfaction ratings, the Orkneys offer a quality of life unmatched elsewhere in rural Britain.

“While the employment rate is significantly higher than the national average, there is more and more emphasis being placed on achieving a good work-life balance. The 2017 Rural Quality of Life Survey includes a leisure category for the first time. This shows that residents in the Orkneys have a good choice of pubs from which to choose.

“Rural areas in the South tend to receive higher ratings for weekly earnings, the weather, health, and life expectancy, while in the rural north areas score well on education in terms of grades and smaller class sizes, lower house prices in relation to earnings, and both lower traffic flows and population densities.”

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