Norwich named as the most depressed city in the UK

For decades it’s been known as a the home of Alan Partridge – but now Norwich has a new claim to fame… it’s the most depressed city in the UK. 

Norwich, located in the rump-shaped county of East Anglia, is home to nearly 150,000 people – but it seems one in four of them is not in the best place, at least not mentally, right now.

The gloomy accolade comes after a new survey asked Britons about how they were faring during the darker months. 

More than half of respondents – 57 per cent – admitted they are craving sunlight and warmth. 

And digging further into the data, a quarter (25 per cent) of Norwich residents said that they feel genuinely depressed during mid to late January, blaming long stretches of overcast days and limited midwinter sunlight. 

Norwich only narrowly took the crown, with joint second place holders Stoke and Swansea both polling 24 per cent. 

Third place Manchester polled 21 per cent and fourth place Edinburgh 16 per cent. 

Looking at the responses at a national level, four in ten (42 per cent) say they feel more depressed in January than any other month of the year.

This is driven by the cold (47 per cent), endless hours of darkness (37 per cent) and a lack of natural sunlight (34 per cent).

More than half (54 per cent) wish January was a cheerier month, with 57 per cent  craving more light in their lives, and half admitting their tolerance for other people is seriously tested. 

To combat the ‘January blues’, the survey found that most people opt to stay indoors – but their chosen activities definitely share some overlaps with behaviours typical of people who are diagnosed with depression. 

Of the people surveyed, 41 per cent spend hours on the sofa and over a third (36 per cent) just refuse to get out of bed at all. 

A third (34 per cent) avoid social situations, nearly a quarter (24 per cent) ignore phone calls, or they choose to doomscroll for hours (22 per cent) and leave people on ‘read’ for days (14 per cent) in the midst of their low mood.

The survey, conducted by British Gas, only quizzed 2,000 people, but their results feed into a wider picture of the country’s overall level of wellbeing. 

In May last year, data released by the Office for National Statistics pinpointed the happiest and unhappiest regions in the UK. 

Every year they ask tens of thousands of people in the UK to rank their happiness, life satisfaction, anxiety levels and sense of worth out of 10.

And in their most recent snapshot of contentedness, people living in the South West of England were found to be most likely to be generally happy.

Residents living in the mainly rural area, consisting of Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire, scored an average of 7.6 on the happiness index. 

And more than a third of residents reported very high levels of happiness, scoring between nine and 10.  

Conversely, the North East, North West and West Midlands jointly claimed the bottom slot, with residents ranking their happiness score as 7.3 on average. 

Separately, in November housing website Rightmove ranked Norwich as the 49th best place to live in the UK. Skipton, in North Yorkshire, came in first place. 

A mix of anxiety and depression is estimated to be Britain’s most common mental health problem, affecting about 8 per cent of the population, with a similar rate in the US.  

While it is normal to feel down from time to time, people with depression may feel persistently unhappy for weeks or months on end.

Depression can affect anyone at any age and is fairly common – approximately one in ten people are likely to experience it at some point in their life.

It is a genuine health condition which people cannot just ignore or ‘snap out of’.

Symptoms and effects vary, but can include constantly feeling upset or hopeless, or losing interest in things you used to enjoy.

It can also cause physical symptoms such as problems sleeping, tiredness, having a low appetite or sex drive, and even feeling physical pain.

In extreme cases it can lead to suicidal thoughts.

Traumatic events can trigger it, and people with a family history may be more at risk.

It is important to see a doctor if you think you or someone you know has depression, as it can be managed with lifestyle changes, therapy or medication.