Western Isles residents are '˜UK's happiest', says study

RESIDENTS of the Western Isles are the happiest in the UK, according to a study involving hundreds of thousands of Britons.

The white sandy beach at Seilebost on Harris in the western isles. Picture: Ian Rutherford

Researchers at the Office for National Statistics asked 300,000 respondents to report on how happy they were on a scale of one to 10, 9-10 meaning participants were “very happy” and 0-4 signifying “low”. The study was conducted over a three year period which ended in 2015.

Three other spots in the survey’s top five happiest places in the UK were taken up by Scots – Orkney residents were the second happiest, and those living in the Highlands and Islands followed in third. Shetlanders came fourth in the study. The happiest residents outside of Scotland lived in Eastern Cheshire, the fifth happiest area.

In the same study researchers found Wolverhampton residents to be the UK’s least happiest, scoring only 6.99 on average where residents in the Western Isles scored 8.08. However, they were also found to be the least anxious.