The most miserable place in the country is in Sussex.

Adur has been revealed as the least happy place in the UK by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS has been conducting an annual survey to assess the country’s happiness and wellbeing since 2011.

People are asked to rate out of ten how they felt the day before in terms of their life satisfaction, how worthwhile they thought their life is, how happy they felt and how anxious they felt.

The ONS said average ratings of personal wellbeing still remain below pre-pandemic levels and that average ratings of personal well-being in the UK have declined across all measures in the year ending March 2023.

Nationally, the average was 7.45 out of ten for life satisfaction (7.54 in the previous year), 7.73 out of ten for feeling that the things done in life are worthwhile (7.77 in the previous year), 7.39 out of ten for happiness yesterday (7.45 in the previous year), 3.23 out of ten for anxiety yesterday (3.12 in the previous year).

Adur residents rate their happiness at a comparatively low 6.16, which is a huge decline compared to an average rating of 7.4 in the previous year.

MOST READ:

​To have access to all of our best stories subscribe to The Argus using our special offer here

Anxiety levels rocketed in the area with the average rating climbing from 3.4 in 2021-2022 to 4.8 in year to March.

Life satisfaction rose slightly however, with an average score of 7.6, up from 7.3.

More people also thought the things they did in their life were worthwhile with the score rising slightly from 7.8 in 2021 to 2022 to 8 in 2022 to 2023.

The happiest residents lived in the Shetland Isles, with an average happiness score of 8.22.

ONS said the proportion of adults in the UK reporting poor personal well-being (low life satisfaction, worthwhile, happiness and high anxiety) was highest among those self-reporting "very bad health", reporting a disability, who were separated, had no qualifications.

It also revealed that the proportion of women (26.6 per cent) reporting high levels of anxiety was significantly higher than for men (20.0 per cent) in the year ending March 2023.

There were no “statistically significant” differences in the proportion of low levels of life satisfaction, worthwhile, and happiness reported by men and women, however.

A greater proportion of adults aged 50 to 54 and 55 to 59 years reported low levels of life satisfaction (7.9 per cent for both groups) and low levels of happiness (10.3 per cent and 10.9 per cent, respectively). The greatest proportion reporting high levels of anxiety (25.1 per cent) were also those aged 50 to 54 years.

While the highest proportion reporting low levels of feeling things done in life are worthwhile (6.8 per cent) were those aged 85 to 89 years.