Plymouth is the highest performing city in the annual Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities Index, with Bristol rising to second place and Southampton remaining in third place.
Cities across the South West region lead the Index, with Plymouth, Bristol, Swindon and Exeter all being among the best performing cities, consistently scoring above the UK average for health & safety and skills.
These cities scored particularly highly across income distribution, work-life balance, jobs and skills.
The Demos-PwC Good Growth for Cities Index ranks 51 of the UK’s largest cities (generally considered those with populations of at least 350,000 people), plus the London boroughs as a whole, based on the public’s assessment of 12 economic measures, including jobs, health, income, safety and skills, as well as work-life balance, housing, travel-to-work times, income equality, high street shops, environment and business startups.
Cities across the South West region lead the latest Index, with Plymouth, Bristol, Swindon and Exeter all being among the highest performing cities, scoring above the UK average for health & safety and skills. Despite this, the region’s cities score less well on new businesses and house price-to-earnings relative to the rest of the UK.
Meanwhile in another survey by Blue Trolley the city ranks fifth most stressed city.
The study examined search volumes for 282 keywords related to stress and burnout in every UK city and Plymouth comes out with 292.96 searches per 100,000 and a search volume of 774.
A spokesperson for Blue Trolley said: “ This study sheds light on the diverse landscape of mental health concerns.”