SHROPSHIRE is one of the happiest places to live in England and Wales.

The county ranked seven out of 10 in an ONS survey of the public's happiness over the past 12 months.

People in England and Wales rated their happiness the day before at an average of 7.2 out of 10 before the pandemic.

That score dropped to its lowest point at 6.4 during the first week of lockdown at the end of March last year.

Generally, levels of happiness have mirrored levels of restrictions - the average score jumped to 7.4 in late May ahead of planned school reopenings and other easing.

Research, published last month by the medical journal The Lancet, found a similar pattern for people’s mental health.

From its surveys, the ONS has identified five main factors that affect happiness.

Among these were people’s ability to save money over the next 12 months, whether they felt they had enough information to protect themselves from the pandemic, their level of comfort in leaving home, and age group.

Some of these factors may influence the gap in happiness levels between rural and urban areas.

Hambleton, a predominantly rural area in North Yorkshire, saw the highest level of happiness, at 7.4 out of 10, followed by Ashford in Kent, Daventry in Northamptonshire and Newark and Sherwood in Nottinghamshire at 7.3 out of 10.

Shropshire was not far behind on seven.

Adults living in London reported the lowest level of happiness, at 6.5 out of 10 in early 2021. That compared to 6.6 nationally and 6.8 in rural areas.

The strongest correlation with happiness, found by the ONS, was how lonely someone feels.

On average, levels of loneliness in Great Britain have increased since spring 2020 - rising to higher levels during the second lockdown than the first.

In April and May 2020, around five per cent of people said that they felt lonely often or always.

Those levels rose through the summer and into the autumn, and hit a peak of around eight per cent in January this year.

Overall, figures show young and single people were more likely to be lonely, with difficulties with relationships caused by the pandemic and not having anyone to talk to also contributing to experiences of loneliness.