Aberdeen named happiest city in UK

PEOPLE in Aberdeen are among the happiest in the country.

A new survey has revealed Aberdeen is the happiest city in the UK, and people in Aberdeenshire are the second most content in Scotland.

Aberdeen ranked top in all categories among the major urban populations of Britain.

The results were revealed in an Office for National Statistics survey which asked people how satisfied they were with their life, how worthwhile they considered their life to be, how happy they felt the day before and how anxious they were on the same day.

In all categories, the city had the top rating of all cities in the UK.

According to the report, the 707 people responding in Aberdeenshire rated their average satisfaction levels at 7.87 out of 10. Only the Orkney and Shetland islands scored higher in Scotland, with an average rating of 8.1.

When asked “How satisfied are you with your life nowadays?”, 755 people living in Aberdeen also rated highly – with an average of 7.64 out of 10.

Kevin Stewart, SNP MSP for Aberdeen Central, said: “Aberdeen city and Aberdeenshire is a fantastic area to live and it doesn’t surprise me levels of satisfaction are so high.”

In terms of whether people think what they do in their lives is “worthwhile”, Aberdeenshire was third in Scotland, said the data.

And when asked “How happy did you feel yesterday?”, Aberdonians ranked joint 13th out of the 30 areas in Scotland, while people in Aberdeenshire were again second after Orkney and Shetland.

Aberdeenshire folk also appeared to be less stressed than the average Scot with a rating of just 2.59 out of 10, or third-least anxious group in the country.

Aberdeen was halfway down the table on that measure on 3 out of 10.

Comparing countries, Scotland had higher levels of satisfaction with an average of 7.48 compared to England and Wales, both on 7.4.