York named UK's friendliest place to live

The results of the first ever Friendly Index are announced today, revealing that community spirit is still very much alive in certain areas of the UK, with York topping the list of the friendliest places to live.

How many of us actually know our neighbours, say hello to the postman or call the landlord of our local pub by name? More than you might think according to the new research by specialist health insurer National Friendly. When scored across a series of questions about their neighbours and local community, the people of York were named friendliest in the UK beating Swansea and Cambridge to the top spot.

At the other end of the table, London finds itself among the bottom three, while holiday favourite Brighton only ranks 28 out of the 29 locations surveyed.

Being friendly and smiling has been widely linked to good health and living longer so with almost half of the people in Cambridge (51%) and Swansea (45%) revealing that they always smile and say hello to people in the street, it would appear they are the healthiest among us. At the other end of the scale, only 5% of people in Worcester participate in such greetings.

The results seem to indicate that there is still a friendly local community in some UK towns, with a high percentage of people in Aberystwyth (47%) and Chelmsford (31%) knowing the name of their local postman, policeman and milkman. In contrast, only 17% of people in Leeds and 13% of those in Southampton could make the same claim.

Finding friendly neighbours can also be a tough task, but not for some UK residents; almost half of those living in Swansea (41%) and Gloucester (40%) speak to their neighbours every day. Seemingly more difficult to find in the South, only 13% of people in London and 16% of residents of Brighton and Southampton speak to their neighbours every day.

Commenting on the Friendly Index, CEO of National Friendly, Richard Sear, said: “A smile and a friendly chat can go such a long way, not only does it put people in a better mood, but it is known to improve health and wellbeing.

“As a Mutual and Friendly Society, we wanted to find out where the friendliest people live. Hopefully we will see some of the less friendly locations improve their friendly ranking and move up our Friendly Index next year!

For further information about National Friendly, log onto: nationalfriendly.co.uk