DATA suggests Newport and Cardiff have ranked the bottom two in a list of happiest places in Wales while Monmouthshire and Bridgend residents have come top.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently released an update on their annual personal wellbeing report. This report highlights that between April 2022 and March 2023, Cardiff and Newport were listed at the bottom in Wales for resident happiness.
Newport scored 7.13 out of 10, 0.26% below the UK national average of nearly 7.39 out of 10.
Michaela, a resident in the St Julian's area of Newport, said: “I’m happy in my area personally but it’s sad that all the shops are closed in the city centre. No one wants to come here, they’ll go to Cwmbran or Cardiff”.
On the other hand, the same dataset revealed that Monmouthshire ranked the second happiest place to live in Wales despite being just seventeen miles away from Newport.
Manager at One Beyond, Craig, says the council “need to invest in places like this [Kingsway Centre]. My guess would be they’re better taken care of in Monmouthshire and not as much in Newport”.
An interactive and free map can be found here, and it connects all the places that can help mental and physical wellbeing in the local area.
Dave Bland, the chief executive officer of Mind in Gwent, says: “Although unhappiness is not necessarily the same as a mental health problem the two can be linked”.
According to Dave, social isolation, troubles with money or racism, poor housing, and unemployment can all bring about the feeling of being unhappy.
Dave says: "It's not always easy to take care of our wellbeing. Or to know where to start. Give yourself time to figure out what works for you. Different things work for different people. Take it step by step. If the first step feels too hard, try to break that up into even smaller steps".
Newport Mind provides a range of tips to help on their website.
The full set of data can be found here: Annual personal well-being estimates - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)
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