And the best place to live in the UK is...?

This year Edinburgh came out on top.

The annual report analyses and weights a range of key economic indicators including: house price affordability; affordability of rental costs; salaries; disposable income; cost of living; unemployment rates and life satisfaction.
 
The 2015 report reveals Edinburgh has scored above average almost across the board. Of the UK’s 12 largest cities, it has the lowest unemployment rate, dropping from 6.6% last year to 5.5% this year. Edinburgh residents also take home the highest average annual salary (£25,543) outside of London whilst benefiting from lower cost of living with an average weekly household expenditure of £386.50 compared to the UK average of £426.30.
 
Whilst most prosperous cities usually suffer from high housing costs, Edinburgh has high salaries without housing costs increasing to the same degree. The average asking price of rent in Edinburgh (£1,099) takes up just over half of the annual salary (52%), a lot less than the average rental asking price of £2,353 pcm in London, which amounts to a shocking 93% of the average London salary!
 
Belfast comes in at second place in the Quality of Living Index, primarily because it has the second lowest unemployment rate at 6.5%, which is down from 6.8% last year. The Northern Irish capital also has the highest life satisfaction score (7.65) of all the 12 cities, up from 7.28 in 2014.
 
The Welsh capital of Cardiff takes the bronze position in third place. The city has a low cost of living with an average weekly household expenditure of £384.60 against an average of £426.30, as well as an above average amount of disposable income - £16,520 per head, up 3% from £15,999 in 2014.

The UK’s seventh largest city Liverpool has seen unemployment rate falling from 12.1% to 10.6% in the last year. Despite this, it still has the highest number of unemployed adults of the 12 cities as well as the lowest life satisfaction score.  Birmingham takes the bottom spot this year and performs below average for five out of seven indicators. Birmingham also has the lowest disposable income of £13,575 a year per person against a UK average of £17,559.
 
Kevin Pratt, Consumer Finance Expert at MoneySuperMarket, said: “Anyone who lives in or who has visited Edinburgh won’t be surprised to learn that it has clinched the top spot in our Quality of Living survey.
 
It is a beautiful city with stunning architecture and a thriving cultural scene and, in addition, it has over the last year benefited from lower unemployment and lower cost of living. People in the Scottish capital have also seen a rise in disposable income and salaries over the last 12 months, propelling the city to the top of the list of best places to live in the UK.
 
Overall, the UK’s largest cities perform well in the Quality of Living index. While in some cases, salaries have fallen slightly and the cost of living has risen, hitting some cities hard, life satisfaction scores are generally higher across the board compared to last year.
 
What’s more, these cities have benefited from falling unemployment, a decrease in rent and a rise in disposable income over the last year. Added to this, property prices are on the rise again, so many home owners are seeing their properties increase in value. So there are many reasons for British city-dwellers to be happy, not just those living in Edinburgh.”