Islington rated worst place in UK for women to live

Despite scoring highly on income, Islington's large gender pay gap sent it spiralling down the list
Islington scored well on some factors, but ranked poorly for housing affordability, wellbeing, safety and environment.
Graham Hussey
Francesca Gillett12 September 2017

Islington has been rated the worst place to be a woman in Britain, with three other London boroughs all ranking in the bottom 10.

The City of London, Westminster and Camden were all found to be among the worst local authority areas for women to live, according to the new study published today.

The researchers’ analysis looked at issues like the gender pay gap, female life expectancy, the proportion of older women living alone and women's unemployment, taking data from the Office for National Statistics and the 2011 census.

The best place for women to live in the UK was East Dunbartonshire in Scotland, the analysis by the National Centre for Social Research for BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour found.

Top 10 places for women to live in UK

1. East Dunbartonshire, Scotland

2. East Renfrewshire, Scotland

3. West Oxfordshire, South East

4. West Berkshire, South East

5. South Oxfordshire, South East

6. Winchester, South East

7. Mid Sussex, South East

8. Wycombe, South East

9. Stafford, West Midlands

10. Shropshire, West Midlands

The Scottish local authority area ranked well on factors including happiness, access to green spaces and general living and well-being.

All of inner London scored poorly on the list, graded among the worst places - although Ealing, Hounslow, Newham, Enfield and Merton were all rated slightly higher as “below average”.

Richmond, Croydon, Sutton, Havering, Greenwich, Redbridge, Barnet and Harrow all ranked average, while Bromley and Kingston were both above average.

Islington, the worst place to be a woman out of 380 local authorities in the UK, had incredibly low scores for housing affordability, safety and environment – although its rating on culture and education both fared well.

Islington topped the list of worst places to be a woman.
Graham Hussey

Female Islington residents reported among the lowest levels of happiness, life satisfaction and feelings that their life is worthwhile as well as the highest levels of anxiety.

Its low result for housing affordability may come as no surprise to Islington locals in a borough where the average house price is 16 times the median income.

The 10 worst places for women to live in UK

1. Islington, London

2. Blackpool, North West

3. Corby, East Midlands

4. Boston, East Midlands

5. Kingston upon Hull, Yorkshire and The Humber

6. Burnley, North West

7. City of London, London

8. Westminster, London

9. Wolverhampton, West Midlands

10. Camden, London

Interestingly, the north London borough also scored highly on women’s salary, initially coming in at 16th in the country, but it plummeted down the list because of the large gender pay gap which sent it to 105th.

The City of London had a similar story; housing affordability, wellbeing, safety and environment all scored low although the borough was ranked number one in Britain for education.

But in some good news for London’s women, Hackney was found to be the third best place for female workers to live in the UK, with a narrow gender pay gap of just 1.01 ratio of men’s income to women’s.

Although for older women aged 65 and over, Hackney was bumped down the list to the third worst place to live in the UK.

The best place to be a female earner in Britain is Brentwood in Essex where the average pay gap was just one per cent.

The gender pay gap was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year after the BBC pay scandal, when it emerged the corporation was paying many of its male stars higher wages than their female counterparts.

Famous women who were born or have lived in Islington include Lily Allen, Helena Bonham Carter, Peaches Geldof and Kate Winslet.

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