Orkney offers the best quality of rural life in Scotland and is among the best areas to live in the UK as a whole, according to a new survey.
The 2015 Halifax Rural Areas Quality of Life survey rated the archipelago in the top 50 areas of Britain, using measures such as levels of crime, weather, employment, housing costs and personal wellbeing.
A key factor in the survey is how people rate their own personal wellbeing in four categories: life satisfaction, worthwhile, happiness and anxiety. Orkney residents over 16 quoted the highest avreage ratings for the whole of the uk, giving their wellbeing an average score of 8.2 out of ten, against a UK average of 7.5.
Orkney, which came in 21st out of 121 rural local authorities on the list, also has the lowest burglary rate per 10,000 people of the whole of the UK (one burglary).
The Shetland Islands was the only other authority to feature in the top 50, coming in at 40th.
Meanwhile East Ayrshire tied with Copeland in Cumbria for having the most affordable housing. Both areas have a house price to earnings ratio of 3.8, compared with a national average of 6.2. The majority of homes in the UK have central heating, but East Ayrshire tops the charts for this too, with the survey recording 100 per cent of homes enjoying central heating against a national average of 96 per cent.
The Western Isles and the Highlands were rated highly for population density and lack of traffic. People in the Western Isles enjoy a population density of just nine people per square kilometre compared to a national average of 264, while the number of vehicles per square kilometre is just 67 in the Western Isles and 100 in the Highlands, compared with a national average of 8,792. Argyll and Bute also boasts low traffic, with 126 vehicles per square kilometre.
Aberdeenshire was among a group of rural areas boasting high levels of self-reported health, with 96.8 per cent of people there rating their health as good or fairly good. Only the Isles of Scilly scored higher, with 97 per cent.
Generally, the survey found that Northern areas of the UK scored better on education in terms of grades and smaller class sizes, relatively low house prices in relation to earnings, and both lower population densities and traffic flows and congestion.
The survey highlights primary school classes, which are smallest in Scotland with seven local authorities north of the border in the UK top ten for smallest classes. The Western Isles has average primary classes of 17.0 compared with a national average of 26.4.
However rural areas in the south scored better on average earnings, the weather, health and life expectancy and the top 50 areas in the survey are dominated by the south east of England.
The sunniest place in the UK is the Isle of Wight, with 36.9 hours of sunshine a week compared to a national average of 29.5 hours. The lowest rainfall was in Maldon, in Essex.
The survey declared Rutland as having the best rural quality of life in the UK. The East Midlands district regularly features in the top ten in the annual survey, even though house prices are higher than average and the cost of living generally is higher than in many other parts of Britain.
Craig McKinaly, mortgages director at Halifax, said: "Taking a wide range of economic and social factors into account, residents here can now lay claim to having the highest standard of living in Rural Britain
"In terms of personal wellbeing and general good health, Rutland residents score among the highest in Great Britain."
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