NEWS Shopper readers living away from inner London tend to be the more cheery and fulfilled, according to new figures.   

An Office for National Statistics survey puts Bromley second out of all London boroughs for overall levels of life satisfaction with an average rating of 7.54.

By contrast Lewisham is fifth from bottom of the heap in the capital on 7.09 while Gravesham is bottom in the whole of Kent on 7.08 – way below the county wide figure of 7.51.

The project asked 165,000 people across the UK to rate their life satisfaction, how worthwhile their lives are, how happy they felt yesterday and how anxious they felt the previous day on a scale of 0 to 10 where 0 is ‘not at all’ and 10 is ‘completely’.

Put together between April and March, the survey is the first of its kind looking at how personal well-being varies across the countries, regions and more local areas of the UK.

Lewisham and Greenwich scored an identical 7.07 for happiness compared to 7.53 in Bromley, while Bexley equalled the outer London average of 7.20.

Only people in Tonbridge and Malling are less happy than Gravesham residents across the whole of Kent, with the borough scoring 6.99 compared to Dartford on 7.51.

Across the UK ratings for life satisfaction and the feeling life is worthwhile increased on average from 2011/2012 to 2012/2013 while anxiety levels fell.

This was certainly reflected in chilled out Bexley where respondents’ anxiety levels were an average 3.12 or the fourth lowest in the capital.

Stressed out City workers no doubt drove the figure for the City of London to a feverish 7.61 or almost double the next closest area. 

An ONS spokesman said: "The relationship between personal well-being and local circumstances is complex and the reasons why different areas of the UK have different levels of personal well-being is not yet fully understood.

"We plan to publish further analysis later this year looking in detail at how different aspects of where we live contribute to personal well-being."

What do you think makes people so happy in some areas and much less happy in others places close by? Why are Bromley people in particular appear to be so satisfied with their lives? Add your comments below.

Satisfaction Happiness Worthwhile Anxiety UK 7.41 7.28 7.66 3.14 London 7.25 7.19 7.51 3.43 Kent 7.51 7.37 7.81 3.03 Bexley 7.40 7.20 7.71 3.12 Bromley 7.54 7.53 7.90 3.21 Dartford 7.46 7.51 7.89 3.20 Gravesham 7.08 6.99 7.64 3.37 Greenwich 7.20 7.07 7.36 3.42 Lewisham 7.09 7.07 7.42 3.63