Surrey: a green and pleasant land just outside of London, the inspiration for literary greats like Austen and Dickens, full of charming countryside – and also (apparently) home to the most ‘anxious’ place in the UK.
The borough of Spelthorne has been revealed as having the most worried population in the country. That’s according to online vape retailer Go Smoke Free, which looked at personal wellbeing estimates from the Office of National Statistics between April 2022 and March 2023.
It found that the area had an average anxiety score of 5.16 out of ten, which was 60.41 percent higher than the national average (which is 3.23 out of ten).
And it seems that Spelthorne isn’t the only stressful district in the Home Counties. Adur in West Sussex came next on the list with residents’ average anxiety score at 4.84 out of ten. Worthing in West Sussex ranked seventh and Hastings in East Sussex ranked eighth.
Rushmoor, in Hampshire, Broxbourne, in Hertfordshire and the Forest of Dean also ranked highly while Norwich, Northwest Leicestershire and Rossendale in Lancashire were the only non-southern areas in the top ten.
In Scotland, the biggest worriers apparently reside in Dumfries and Galloway, which ranked 29th nationally. In Wales, Blaenau Gwent was deemed its most anxious region at 39th nationally and in Northern Ireland it was Antrim and Newtown Abbey (but that was way down in 86th place and only 0.23 percent above the national average).
Self-care with Time Out
Thanks to nine-to-fives, the rising cost-of-living and chaotic public transport, UK life can get pretty stressful. So you’ve got every excuse to treat yourself to some gentle self-care every now and then. Consider some of these wellbeing breaks and yoga retreats, a long, restorative walk through some of our most beautiful national parks or deep-tissue massage at one of the UK's best spas.
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