happy families

Delighted to find that families living in Chelmsford are the happiest according to a new survey that I came across in various newspapers. OK we don’t actually live in Chelmsford, just outside if truth be told, but I did grow up in Chelmsford, I work there and my daughter’s school is there so I think we count. The survey of 3,000 families, conducted by the family website Uinvue, identified those living in Chelmsford as being most content. Factors contributing to this state of bliss include:

• having a close circle of friends and relatives living nearby
• short travel times to work
• enjoying the company of colleagues
• manageable workloads
• a good amount of quality time together (nearly 2 hours a day)

Mark De Netto speaking on behalf of Uinvue commented:

It suggests the happiest are those which have a good balance between work and play. People also need to feel comfortable financially and have people to support them. Additionally, big cities such as London might feel more impersonal and be faster paced.

These are hardly dramatic revelations and exactly the sort of conclusions one would expect.I did try and track down the original survey for a closer look, with little success. The Uinvue site doesn’t have the survey results yet and is little more than a Facebook style social networking site. They do have the results of a survey conducted in November 2009 on Family Feuds; I gave that a miss in case we scored too highly!

The survey revealed that the town with the least happy people is Aberystwyth and this was attributed to feelings of being over-worked and under-paid; again hardly a surprise. De Netto observes:

People living here are actually quite satisfied with home life, feeling close to the people they live with and spending loads of time together. But if work is difficult and money is tight, it can be hard to leave those worries at the front door when returning home for the evening.

Here are the top fives according to the survey.

Happiest Families	Unhappiest Families
Chelmsford	Aberystwyth
Portsmouth	London
Gloucester	Leicester
Edinburgh	Cardiff
York	Southampton

I have to say Chelmsford is a pleasant place to be around but I've also enjoyed living in Belfast, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Durham, Oxford, Southport, Thurrock, Waltham Abbey and Barking and Dagenham. In my experience it's the people that make all the difference.