The good, the bad and the ugly of post-Covid Britain

sunset-570881_1920Following the publication of this year’s The World Happiness Report – which put Finland at the top of the pile – a new analysis by the boffins at Metrix Data Science reveals the happiest, healthiest and booziest people closer home, with some surprising results.

Based on the data which powers health and wellbeing tool Vigor, there are no prizes for guessing that the most joyous county is Cornwall, which has also proved to be one of the most popular counties for staycations and second homes.

However, the “Land of the Goddess” is swiftly followed by Herefordshire and Devon, with Norfolk and Cumbria making up the top five.

When it comes to opposite end of the spectrum, the gloomiest people live in the Royal County of Berkshire, home to Windsor, Bracknell, Wokingham and…Slough.

In second place is the nation’s capital, London, and leafy Surrey, officially England’s most densely-wooded county, with more than one-fifth of its land area covered by trees, coming in third.

Whilst looking at happiness by area, Metrix Data Science also analysed other factors linked to health and vitality.

It is suggested that people who consider themselves attractive usually have better health; indeed it found a correlation within Vigor to support this. But where do these good lookers live?

On top of the pile are people who reside in Surrey; they consider themselves better looking than anybody else in England. They are followed by those who live in Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Kent and Cheshire – the latter no doubt buoyed by the prevalence of Premier League footballers.

On the other side of the coin, which are the areas where people don’t rate their looks? Well, coming first – or last depending on your point – are the residents of the Isle of Wight, who reckon they are all mingers, followed by Cornwall and Tyne and Wear.

This exercise was repeated by ranking those who consider their diets the healthiest. Top of the rank were those living in Lincolnshire, who considered their diet was the healthiest in England; followed by Shropshire, slightly ahead of Northumberland, Norfolk and Dorset.

And finally, the report looked at which county in England drank the most, or at least could remember they did so.
Top of the poll is Isle of Wight – whose residents may just be drowning their sorrows for being ugly – followed by London and Dorset. Those who drank the least, or so they claimed, live in Bristol, Bucks and Berkshire.

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