THE people of Fermanagh and Omagh are the happiest in the North of Ireland.
That’s according to the Office for National Statistics who have just published the results of their survey into well-being.
The poll was based on four measures: happiness, life satisfaction, worthiness (feeling life was worthwhile) and anxiety.
Respondents were asked, on a scale of 0-10, how they felt the previous day about each of the four categories.
The local authority that makes up Fermanagh and Omagh did well overall, coming top in happiness and life satisfaction, and 4th equal in the worthwhile stakes
But they did prove themselves more anxious than many of the respondents in the other 12 local authorities in the North, coming in fourth from bottom with a score of 3.15.
Lisburn and Castlereagh proved to be the most anxious area in the North, with an average score of 3.52, where 0 is 'not at all anxious' and 10 is 'completely anxious'.
This put them only marginally ahead of two British areas — the most anxious places in Britain are Pendle in Lancashire (3.58) and Greenwich in London (3.55).
The second happiest area in the North is Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon, followed by Mid and East Antrim in third place.
But even the unhappiest place in the Six Counties, North Down and Ards, with a score of 7.32, is well ahead of the unhappiest places in Britain — Bolsover with 6.89, followed by Cannock Chase, Staffordshire, on 6.92 and Dundee City on 7.02.
Overall the Six Counties had a high average reported rating for life satisfaction (7.9 out of 10), significantly higher than anywhere in Britain.
