Buckinghamshire has the best quality of life amongst counties in Britain with the healthiest and some of the highest paid residents, according to the latest survey from the Halifax.

In fact, Halifax found that residents of Buckinghamshire are not just the healthiest but they also have the highest life expectancy rates (80 years for newborns). People living in the county are also typically well remunerated with an average annual salary of £40,000 (equivalent to the top 5% for all counties in this survey). The majority of householders are owner-occupiers (77%), while houses are larger than average (6.1 rooms). GCSE results are also above average and the area sees slightly more sunshine per week (28.7 hours) than the average for other counties (27.7) in the survey.

Apart from Vale of Glamorgan, the top ten counties are all in the South East, Greater London and East of England. In fact, 22 of the top 30 counties offering the highest quality of life score are in southern England. Ten are in the South East, seven in Greater London, and the East Anglia and South West provide five counties.

Halifax found that average house prices in the top ten counties trade at an average premium of £18,353 (6.5%) above their region’s average price. For those counties ranked 11th to 20th in the quality of life survey average house prices trade at a discount of almost £22,186 (-5.4%) to the region.

For quality of life rankings outside of the south east, the top ranked county in northern England is North Yorkshire (35th). North Yorkshire has a high employment rate, a high owner-occupation rate and a low level of carbon emissions.

The top Scottish county (or local authority) is East Dunbartonshire (15th). East Dunbartonshire has a high employment rate, owner occupancy rate, generally good health and high educational results, while the top Welsh county is the Vale of Glamorgan (8th). In Glamorgan, houses are relatively large. The county also has above average owner occupancy rates, life expectancy is high and GCSE results are amongst the best in the country.

On housing figures, Halifax found that owner-occupation rate is highest in East Renfrewshire (83%), followed by East Dunbartonshire (81%) and Havering in London (79%). Buckinghamshire has the biggest houses in Great Britain, where the average house has 6.1 rooms, closely followed by Monmouthshire (6) and Powys (5.9).

Meanwhile, 98% of houses in West Lothian have central heating, the most of any county in Great Britain. In 95 counties at least 90% of houses have central heating. Also, 101 counties have less than 5.0% of their dwellings vacant – empty properties and second homes. The lowest vacancy rate of properties is in Torfaen in Wales (1%); sixteen other counties have less than 2% of properties vacant.

Martin Ellis, Chief Economist at Halifax, commented: “People living in Buckinghamshire have the highest quality of life amongst all the counties in Great Britain. Average house prices in the county, however, trade at a premium of £21,500 to the South East region; so there is a price for reaping the benefits of living in Buckinghamshire.

Half the top 30 counties have average house prices that are below the regional average. These counties provide the potential for good value with a combination of relatively low prices and high quality of life.”

Quality of Life Rankings – Top 20 Counties in Great Britain

 (Source Halifax)