Survey shows Melton borough is worst place to live for a happy life

The area came in dead last for wellbeing, according to data compiled by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

The stats take into account anxiety levels, happiness, life satisfaction and the feeling that the things done in one’s life are worthwhile.

Melton borough ranked 393rd of 393 local authority areas.

Conversely, Blaby district is not just the area with the highest wellbeing levels of all the local authority areas, it is the fourth best place to live in the country based on the data collected by the ONS.

The ONS asked the population to rate each of the four categories on a scale of 0-10.

Blaby district residents responded with an average of 2.9 for anxiety, 8 for happiness, 8.1 for life satisfaction and 8.3 for a feeling that things done are worthwhile.

Melton residents are actually less anxious than those in Blaby, responding with an average of 2.1.

But the other categories showed 7.2 for happiness, 7 for life satisfaction and 7.6 for a feeling that things done are worthwhile.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service did approach Melton Borough Council for a comment on their position at the bottom of the rankings.

But a spokeswoman said this was the first the council knew of the data, adding their teams ‘are going to have a look at the report and analyse the data so we can get a better understanding of the feedback’.

North West Leicestershire district came second locally and 13th overall, Hinckley and Bosworth borough was not far behind at 15th nationally, followed by Charnwood borough which came in 28th nationally.

Then there was a steep drop off with Leicester ranked next at 193rd, and Harborough District close behind at 197. Oadby and Wigston did not appear in the rankings.

The issue of wellbeing was raised in Parliament this week as many MPs from all sides of the political divide threw their support behind a manifesto seeking to place the wellbeing of people at the heart of the UK’s policy agenda.

The ONS has published data on measures of wellbeing since 2011.