UK Cities Workplace Happiness & Satisfaction Report 2026

A new report ranking UK cities based on how happy their residents are has been released. Consider life satisfaction, anxiety, life expectancy, salary, happiness, and feelings of worth.

As 2026 begins, many professionals are reflecting on their career satisfaction and happiness in their current roles. For many workers, the new year represents new beginnings and opportunities for change, and offers the opportunity to start the next chapter in their careers.

The 2026 UK Cities Workplace Happiness & Satisfaction Report produced by OddsMonkey ranks UK cities based on levels of workplace satisfaction, identifying which areas have residents most and least satisfied with their current employment situation.

The 5 Happiest Cities to Work in 2026

1. Albans – 79.88/100

St Albans was ranked the UK’s happiest city to work in, with an overall score of 79.88/100. The city performed best in terms of life satisfaction, ranking 3rd in terms of average life expectancy (83.75), and 3rd in terms of sense of worth, and also scored highly in all other well-being factors.

2. Oxford – 76.65/100

Oxford ranked second overall with a workplace happiness score of 76.65/100. The city ranked 3rd in terms of life satisfaction and 2nd in terms of sense of worth, and also ranked in the top 10 in all other well-being factors included in the study.

3. Chelmford – 69.28/100

Chelmsford ranked third overall with a workplace happiness score of 69.28/100. The town in Essex ranked first in terms of happiness and second lowest in terms of anxiety, indicating strong daily wellbeing and a positive work-life balance for those who work in the town.

4. Winchester – 67.28/100

Winchester ranked fourth overall with a score of 67.28/100. This city ranks first in terms of average life expectancy at 84.35 years. Despite ranking well on most measures, the city is in the bottom bracket for happiness and anxiety compared with other cities in the UK.

5. Colchester – 62.7/100

Colchester completed the top five with an overall score of 62.7/100. Another town in Essex, it ranked 2nd in terms of life satisfaction and performed relatively strongly in all other wellbeing factors, making it one of the highest ranking towns in the UK for happiness at work.

5 Cities with the Lowest Worker Happiness in 2026

1. Lincoln – 21.16/100

Lincoln was ranked the lowest city in the UK in terms of worker happiness in 2026, with an overall score of just 21.16/100. The city recorded the worst scores for happiness and sense of worth, and also ranked 2nd lowest for life satisfaction among all cities analyzed.

2. Manchester – 25.83/100

Manchester ranked second lowest in terms of worker happiness, with a score of 25.83/100. The city ranked 3rd worst in terms of life satisfaction, 2nd lowest in terms of happiness and sense of worth, and 3rd lowest in terms of average life expectancy at 77.85 years, although it ranked 5th lowest in terms of anxiety.

3. Nottingham – 34.96/100

Nottingham ranked third lowest in terms of worker happiness, with a score of 34.96/100. The city recorded the 4th lowest average weekly income in the study and generally ranked among the lowest incomes across all other well-being measures analyzed.

4. Norwich – 35.1/100

Norwich ranked fourth lowest in terms of worker happiness, with an overall score of 35.1/100. The city recorded the worst anxiety scores in the study, and also ranked lowest in most of the other well-being measures included in the analysis.

5. Glasgow – 36.64/100

Glasgow completed the bottom five with a worker happiness score of 36.64/100. This city recorded the lowest average life expectancy in this study, namely 76.5 years. While it ranks 8th for median weekly income, it ranks poorly in most other well-being factors.

Complete Dataset

Methodology

To identify the UK cities that offer the highest levels of happiness and job satisfaction, we compared cities across six key measures that reflect residents’ wellbeing, financial security and overall quality of life. Overall, these indicators reflect people’s feelings about their life and work environment.

Because each measure is reported at different scales and units, we first standardized all data to ensure fair comparisons between cities.

Standardization & Assessment

For each individual size:

• The city with the best performance is awarded the maximum possible points
• The worst performing city gets zero points
• All other cities receive a proportional score based on how close they are to the best performing city

Each of the six measures is given equal weight, ensuring that no single factor disproportionately influences the final ranking.

One exception applies to anxiety: because lower levels of anxiety reflect better well-being, cities with lower anxiety scores are awarded higher points, while cities with higher anxiety scores receive fewer points.

After each city receives scores for all six measures, the scores are added together to produce a Final Workplace Happiness & Satisfaction Score out of 100which is then used to determine city rankings.

Includes Actions

All cities are evaluated using the following six equally weighted indicators:

• Life Satisfaction
• Useful Feeling
• Happiness
• Anxiety (reverse scored)
• Average Life Expectancy
• Median Weekly Earnings

Data source

Personal Well-Being Act

Data for life satisfaction, usefulness, happiness, and anxiety were taken from Personal wellbeing in England: April 2022 to March 2023published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This data set provides estimates of self-reported well-being across specific areas, including local authority level.

The survey questions used were:

• Overall, how satisfied are you with your life right now?
  
• Overall, to what extent do you feel that the things you do in your life are worthwhile?
  
• Overall, how happy did you feel yesterday?
  
• Overall, how anxious did you feel yesterday?
  

Life Expectancy

Data on average life expectancy comes from Life expectancy in local areas of England: between 2001-2003 and 2022-2024published by the Office for National Statistics.

To calculate life expectancy in each city, we calculated the average life expectancy for men and women using the following calculations:

(Men’s Life Expectancy + Women’s Life Expectancy) / 2

Income

Salary data statistics are taken from Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings published by the Office for National Statistics.