We looked the following criteria for the 30 most populated towns and cities in the UK. We then normalised the results to reach a total score out of 100, with a weighting of 70% for employment opportunities, 15% for housing and 15% for quality of life.
Employment Opportunities
Median Salary
Median salary for full-time employees according to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).
Employment Rate
Taken from latest Regional Labour Market data from ONS.
New Startups per 10,000 People
Number of new business births per 10,000 people, according to Business Demography data from the Office for National Statistics.
Graduate Job Opportunities per 10,000 People
Number of ‘Graduate’ job listings on Glassdoor for each city.
Housing
Average One Bed Property Price
Average cost of a one-bed property, according to Zoopla.
Years to Save for a Deposit
Calculated assuming that you save 10% of your annual salary, as recommended by the Money Advice Service and put down a 10% deposit on a mortgage.
Quality of Life
Pubs per 10,000 People
Pubs for each town/city according to Open Pubs data from GetTheData (derived from the Food Standard Agency’s Food Hygiene Ratings and the ONS Postcode Directory).
Parks per 100,000 People
Number of parks/green spaces according to individual council websites (individual sources can be viewed below).
Crime Rate
Reported crimes per 1,000 people according to government sources:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/recordedcrimedatabycommunitysafetypartnershiparea
https://www.gov.scot/publications/recorded-crime-scotland-2017-18/
https://www.psni.police.uk/inside-psni/Statistics/police-recorded-crime-statistics/
Full data and sources can be viewed here.