The 10 most anxiety ridden places to live in the UK

Pendle in Lancashire is the most anxiety-ridden place to live in the UK according to a new study from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Greenwich in south-east London shivered its way to second in the anxious stakes, with Northern Ireland's Lisburn and Castlereagh in a nail-biting third place.

Researchers from the ONS questioned people on four measures of wellbeing: happiness, life satisfaction, feeling life was worthwhile and anxiety.

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When asked: "Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?" (0 is "not at all anxious" and ten is "completely anxious") residents in Pendle recorded an average score of 3.58.

Nuneaton and Bedworth in Warwickshire; Rushmoor in Hampshire; and Boston in Lincolnshire scored the lowest on the anxiety scale at 1.84, 2.01 and 2.06 respectively.

While Pendle fared worst on anxiety, Bolsover in Derbyshire came lowest in terms of happiness, life satisfaction and feeling that life was worthwhile.

Analysing the outcome of the study, the ONS's director of wellbeing Glenn Everett said: "We often talk of how the country is doing, usually in economic terms. Today's figures address how people are feeling about their lives.

"Overall, people are generally rating their lives higher than they did four years ago. But what is interesting is that [the results of the study] show a slight growth in inequality between people rating their lives highly and those reporting low levels of personal wellbeing."

The UK's top ten anxiety-ridden areas are:

1. Pendle, Lancashire
2. Greenwich, south-east London
3. Lisburn and Castlereagh, Northern Ireland
4. Hertsmere, Hertfordshire
5. Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire
6. Runnymede, Surrey
7. Forest Heath, Suffolk
8. Slough, Berkshire
9. Broxbourne, Hertfordshire
10. Liverpool, Merseyside