Cardiff tops list of best UK cities for young people

Coventry and Newcastle came in second and third place respectively

Cardiff is the best city for young people to live in, due to a combination of job opportunities, high wages and low cost of living, according a new poll.

Seventy per cent of those surveyed in the Welsh capital said that they loved their current job, where people earn on average £21,585 per year. A similar amount of people were satisfied with their work-life balance.

Click here to see the top 10 UK cities for young people

In the poll, which spoke to more than 2,000 18-to­-30-year-olds living 20 UK cities, London was ranked just 15. Although it offers the highest average wages for young people at £27,560, it also had the highest cost of living, rental rates and levels of crime.

The 20 cities were assessed across 10 criteria identified as important by young adults, including job satisfaction, job opportunities, wages, rents niceness of environment and work-life balance.

Though Coventry comes in second, the top of the table is dominated by cities from the north, including Newcastle, Liverpool, and Edinburgh. Surprisingly, the first entry from the more prosperous south was Brighton, in at seventh.

Edinburgh is the UK’s culture and entertainment capital, with the Scottish capital ranking first for culture and entertainment. Residents were happy the good variety of shopping areas, and also the variety of museums and galleries (68 per cent) available.

Edinburgh had the best cultural potential and job opportunities (Kim Traynor/Wiki Commons)

Leeds, meanwhile, is the best city for housing. Thirty-five per cent of young adults own their own homes there. Liverpool is the worst, with only 17 per cent of 18-to-30-year-olds owning property.

The report, entitled “UK Today: Best city to be young”, was researched and written by Dr Esmée Hanna, an expert in demographics, and commissioned by Legal & General’s general insurance business.

She said that “many considerations” shape the idea of quality of life for young people.

“We asked 18-30s directly what they feel has the most significant impact on their quality of life. Job satisfaction and cost of living proved to be the factors they feel are most crucial to their quality of life, with work-life balance also proving important.”

Here are the top 20 UK cities for young people:

1. Cardiff

2. Coventry

3. Newcastle

4. Liverpool

5. Edinburgh

6. Leicester

7. Brighton

8. Bristol

9. Belfast

10. Leeds

11. Glasgow

12. Sunderland

13. Hull

14. Birmingham

15. London

16. Manchester

17. Bradford

18. Nottingham

19. Sheffield

20. Wakefield