Britain’s suburbs – natural habitat of Hyacinth Bucket, Victor Meldrew and his garden gnomes – are often derided as boring. But it turns out that these leafy neighbourhoods are where the nation is happiest.
Scientists say residents in what they call the ‘Goldilocks zone’ – not too busy, not too quiet but just right – sandwiched between city centres and the countryside, are less likely to suffer anxiety and
depression
.
The researchers have come up with a formula to pinpoint these sweet spots, with the distance from the centre of town dependent on the size of a city’s population. So for an area with a population of 200,000, such as Reading, the best place to live is 5.5 miles from the city centre – and Caversham, rising from the Thames to the Chilterns, fits the bill. For those looking for a place near Portsmouth, they would do well to consider Cosham, the UK HQ of computer giant
IBM
.
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For
Brighton
and Hove, with its slightly larger population, the perfect place to set up home might well be in Shoreham-by-Sea, birthplace of singer Leo Sayer.
And for somewhere with a population of about one million, such as
Birmingham
, the happiest people are living up to a 13-mile journey from the city centre: examples include Knowle and Catshill.
It is not clear why suburbanites are the happiest, and the findings were true only for the UK, the team of international scientists said.
But it may be linked to the demographics of these areas, which are more likely to be populated by families who move there for cheaper housing. They may have fewer money worries and a better quality of life overall than those who live more centrally. ‘In the UK, depression and anxiety peak in urban and rural areas, with a ‘Goldilocks zone’ of lower rates in between,’ the researchers wrote in the Journal of Affective Disorders, having used data from the UK, New Zealand and Norway.
‘This zone may result from families relocating to areas just outside cities, while demographics more vulnerable to depression and anxiety tend to favour urban living.
‘It is unclear why the Goldilocks zone was only found for the UK.’
The results show the highest levels of depression were in urban areas, at 8.5 per cent of the population, and in rural areas at 7.9 per cent. But areas in between had a rate of just 7 per cent.
Researchers excluded London because its massive population of nine million presented insurmountable statistical challenges.
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