Market town famed for cakes declared unhappiest place in Britain

London, Sep 29 Chorley, a town of 35,000 famous for its traditional fruit cakes, was crowned on Wednesday as the unhappiest place in Britain.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) named the Lancashire market town as the unhappiest of 2016 as part of a survey of the health, well-being and happiness of people across Britain, Xinhua news agency reported.

Neighbouring boroughs of South Ribble and Rochdale were also close to the top of the unhappiness league table.

According to ONS, the happiest people live in Scotland, with the town of Stirling, the Outer Hebrides and the Scottish Borders reporting the highest levels.

Though in the category for life satisfaction, Glasgow and Scotland's capital city of Edinburgh ranked joint lowest.

The survey also discovered that people in British capital of London had the highest levels of anxiety.

ONS statistician Dawn Snape said: "We have seen personal well-being improving on a UK-wide basis over the past five years."

ONS identified 10 aspects of life that people said mattered to their well-being. These included personal well-being, relationships, health, the economy and the environment.

"When collected over time, personal well-being data can provide an indication of how the well-being of a nation is changing. Since 2011, we have asked personal well-being questions to adults in the UK, to better understand how they feel about their lives," said an ONS spokesman.

"The personal well-being questions are a part of the wider Measuring National Well-being programme which aims to look beyond gross domestic product (GDP) at what matters most to people in the UK," added the spokesman.

IANS