Islington in North London has been named as the worst place in Britain for women to live, according to analysis by BBC Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour.
The London borough came 379th out of 380 British local authorities for wellbeing. Residents reported low levels of happiness, life satisfaction and feelings that their life is worthwhile, alongside some of the highest levels of anxiety.
The borough also performed badly when it came to environmental quality, housing affordability, life expectancy and safety.
Islington did score better when it came to access to culture and entertainment and education. It ranked 16th for women’s wages (£16.35 per hour), however a larger gender wage gap bumped its overall score down.
The best and worst places to live
The research conducted by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) on behalf of Woman’s Hour, listed East Dunbartonshire in Scotland as the best place for women to live.
It scored 11th on education, 16th for quality of the local environment, 40th for overall personal wellbeing, 35th in life satisfaction and 42nd in happiness.
The borough also ranked 46th in terms of income, with the median hourly wage among women equalling £15.07 per hour.
Despite its high levels of education, environmental quality, wellbeing and income, East Dunbartonshire did not excel in housing affordability (ranking 192nd) or life expectancy (159th).
For women under 30, the analysis identified West Oxfordshire as the best place to live, with low unemployment rates and scoring well on safety, culture, personal wellbeing and education.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, Kingston upon Hull ranked as the worst place for young women to live with high rates of unemployment, as well as performing poorly on environment quality, life expectancy and safety.
Karen Dalziel, Woman’s Hour Editor, said: “The Best Place to be a Woman analysis has given us a powerful tool to understand the factors affecting the quality of a woman’s life in Great Britain, and a fascinating insight into the way a woman’s needs, experiences and expectations change during her life.
“But how important are low house prices, good schools and availability of jobs? Can access to green fields or cinemas compensate for high crime rates? Or is having family and friends nearby what women value most? We’ll now investigate to what extent our selected key indicators have really shaped women’s choices about where they live.”