NEWBURY is one of the top third happiest places in Britain according to researchers.
The town was the 79th happiest place out of 273 districts ranked according to “well-being” by researchers from the University of Sheffield and Manchester.
Senior geography lecturer at the Sheffield university, Dr Dimitris Ballas said: “There really is something about the intrinsic nature of places which can influence happiness and well-being. The environment, lack of green spaces, air and noise pollution, crime rates: all of these influence happiness.”
Dr Ballas and Dr Mark Tranmer of the University of Manchester used information from the British Household Panel Survey to conduct the research. The survey takes into account age, income, occupations, health and education.
Brecknock, Montgomery and Radnor in Powys, Wales, is the happiest place to live in Britain, as well as being the most sparsely populated county in Wales.
Sutton in London is the only southern district which makes it into the top ten happiest places, according to the study.
The research finds that living in your home for at least five years boosts your happiness and unemployment does not lead to severe unhappiness, as long as your neighbours are out of work as well.
Dr Ballas said: “The study corroborated research findings of past happiness studies suggesting that unemployment hurts, but it hurts less when there are more unemployed people around you. This also highlights the importance of social justice issues and social and spatial inequalities in determining happiness.”
The findings were presented at the Royal Geographical Society/Institute of British Geographers’ annual conference yesterday (Wednesday).

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