A West Midlands town has found itself near the very bottom of a national league table measuring how content people are with their local area.
Walsall's Low Ranking in National Survey
The property portal Rightmove has placed Walsall as the fifth least happy place to live in the entire United Kingdom. The damning result comes from the company's annual "Happy at Home" index, which is compiled purely from the feedback of residents themselves. Out of 220 towns and cities surveyed across the nation, the Black Country town landed in a lowly 216th position.
This poor ranking indicates a significant level of dissatisfaction among those who call Walsall home. The index asks locals to assess their area based on a comprehensive range of factors that contribute to quality of life. The outcome suggests that many residents hold a negative perception of day-to-day living in the town.
Regional Picture and National Contrast
Walsall was not alone in the West Midlands in receiving a low score. The wider region showed a trend of discontent in the findings. Birmingham was ranked in 209th place, while nearby Dudley followed in 201st position. This clustering towards the bottom of the list points to broader regional challenges affecting resident happiness.
The contrast at the top of the table could not be more striking. The picturesque market town of Skipton in North Yorkshire was crowned the happiest place to live in the UK. Located on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, Skipton's top spot highlights a stark geographical divide in the survey's results.
The Bottom of the Happiness League
Only four locations were deemed officially less happy than Walsall in the 2025 index. These were Barking and Dagenham, Newham, Havering, and Rochester. This confirms Walsall's status as one of the worst-performing locations in the country for self-reported resident contentment.
The "Happy at Home" index, published on the 6th of December 2025, serves as a stark barometer of local sentiment. As the ratings are derived solely from residents' own views, the outcome for Walsall underscores a pressing need to address the factors behind this widespread negative perception.
