Student Living Index 2015: Belfast named most affordable city in the UK for students in NatWest survey

Weekly rent in the Northern Irish capital is only £46 - compared with £112 in Oxford

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Students in Belfast definitely have something to celebrate after the city was named the most affordable for students to live and work in in the UK – with London, not-so-surprisingly, coming tenth.

The Student Living Index 2015 survey by NatWest spoke with almost 2,500 students to see what they spend their money on and focused on four key areas: everyday essentials, socialising, sports and fitness, and hobbies and interests.

As well as making the discovery about Belfast, the survey also found students in Southampton earn the most term-time income and work the longest number of hours.

Although Portsmouth was the most cost-effective place for students to socialise, Newcastle came out on-top for being the city where students spend most of their time socialising.

Students in Dundee featured in the top-five for the highest amount of money spent in several of the categories – including grocery-shopping, netball, and films – while Glasgow students spend their money mostly on fashion, alcohol, and cigarettes.

Cardiff was the only Welsh city in the survey and the students there lead the way in spending the most on hockey.

Here’s a breakdown on what the top-five most affordable student cities spend their money on:

1) Belfast

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Belfast’s students spend the least amount on rent-per-week (just £46 compared with £112 in Oxford) and only £16-per-week on groceries compared with almost £30 in Dundee.

Any wonder it's the most affordable place to live as a student?

2) Southampton

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Students here spend the most time working part-time jobs a week (almost seven hours) and study for just under 27 hours a week too. The city also spends the least time socialising in the UK – just ten hours a week.

3) Nottingham

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Nottingham’s weekly phone bill is the cheapest in the UK at only £4.83-a-week and is in the top-three for spending the most on football every week (£5.93) behind York and Liverpool.

4) Edinburgh

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Edinburgh comes in fifth for earning the most money during term – an average of £42.96 – and students in the Scottish capital spend almost 32 hours each week on academic study.

5) Manchester

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Students from this city had one of the lowest expenditures on sport and fitness but had the third-highest term-time earnings with £45.97 in the bank every week and one of the lowest weekly rent amounts at £71.33.