Bristol is best place in UK outside London to live for under 26s

'This really is ‘news you can use’ for young people in Britain'

Bristol is the best place to live in the UK outside of London for people under the age of 26, according to a BBC Newsbeat analysis.

The south-west city nabbed the top spot out of all UK local authorities due to several factors which include rent, transportation, mental health, music events, sports facilities, and 4G strength.

The news comes a month after Bristol was found to be the vegan capital of the world in a new study followed by Portland, Edinburgh, Vancouver and Seattle.

Debbie Ramsay, editor at Radio 1 Newsbeat, says: “This really is ‘news you can use’ for young people in Britain.”

According to Bristol.gov.uk, the median age of people living in the city is 33 years old, compared to 40 years in England and Wales. There are now at least 45 religions, at least 180 countries of birth and at least 91 main languages spoken in the city.

In addition, the average house price in the city is now £274,361, compared to an average of £248,611 across England. In London, the average house price comes in at £481,200 following a 0.2 per cent drop in 2018.

The city also has an employment rate of 77.2 per cent which is the highest of British core cities and 2.8 per cent higher than the national average.

London locations Islington, Camden and Westminster also scored the three highest scores respectively with Bristol in the analysis.

Meanwhile, the local authority with the lowest score was found to be Melton in Leicestershire, with Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, and Allerdale, Cumbria, coming in as the second and third lowest, respectively.

Further north, Glasgow ranked highest while the Western Isles ranked lowest. As for Wales, Cardiff came out on top while the Isle of Anglesey fared the worst.

To find out the most popular UK local authority, the BBC carried out a poll of 1,038 British 16-24-year-olds to find out 11 measures that are relevant to young people.

The data was then transformed to fit on a scale from zero to 10, where a lower score means a poorer performance on that measure. Each of the local authority’s total score is the average of its scores on each individual measure.

Using that information, the BBC has launched a new “Know Your Place” online calculator which enables young people in the UK to enter their preferences to find out their best place to live.

Ramsay adds: “To be able to select an area that might better suit your lifestyle is an invaluable tool for under 26 year-olds who are making important decisions about the way they live.”

To find out the best place to live for you, check out the BBC’s ’Know Your Place’ calculator on the Newsbeat and BBC News website today.