The ongoing debate surrounding the North South divide finally has a definitive answer: it's far better to live in the North.

A study by Rightmove looked into key measures of happiness with your location - such as space, contentment, neighbourliness, safety, cost and wellbeing - and the North emerged streets ahead.


It started with the 12 things that make a great place to live: from local amenities to the value of the property and the neighbours. It took into account factors affecting your property, your home and your community. It then scored each area in each category to find an overall score.

Top 10

Carlisle
York
Huddersfield
Harrogate
Chester
Llandudno
Norwich
Derby
Dorchester
Exeter

It means that seven of the 10 happiest cities in the UK are in the North – of the Top 10, only Norwich, Dorchester and Exeter are in the South.

Miles Shipside, director at Rightmove, explains: "Our research provides an interesting challenge to the typical view of the north-south divide. Neither Carlisle nor the north regularly features at the top of too many property market league-tables, but this doesn't appear to be playing on the minds of those who live there too much!"

In fact, surely they can only gain from factors that measure space, wellbeing in their home and neighbourliness - all of which benefit from being a reasonable distance from your immediate neighbours rather than squashed in on top of them.

Meanwhile the bottom ten are largely bits of London with a high density, high turnover and higher crime rates:

Bottom 10

London - East
Ilford
London - South East
Luton
Romford
Oldham
Enfield
London - North
London - West
Harrow

Ilford was ranked lowest for neighbourliness and investment potential for property, Oldham for value, amenities and recreation and East London for safety, pride and property decor.Watford meanwhile was home to those who are least content in their home, and Bradford to those who are least likely to have a feeling of wellbeing at home.

But while those in the North have every reason to feel smug that their area is officially a nicer place to live than the south, it's worth bearing in mind that this is no measure of property values. Average asking prices in Carlisle started the year at £136,586, some 7.3% lower than they were in January 2011. Since peaking in September 2007, average asking prices have fallen 23%.

When it comes to holding property values, it seems the South may have something to offer after-all.