Access to affordable food, green space, gyms, and nutritious restaurants all play a crucial role in how easy it is to stay healthy depending on where you live.
We analysed 35 UK cities across four key factors – weekly food shop cost, monthly gym price, amount of green space, and the number of healthy restaurants – to reveal which cities make healthy living easy, and which make it an uphill battle.
The Most and Least Healthy Cities in the UK
Each city was scored out of 140 across all four categories, with a higher score meaning greater access and affordability.
Birmingham takes the top spot with an overall score of 113/140. The city benefits from a relatively affordable weekly food shop (£23.89), a reasonable average gym price (£27.16), an impressive 943,680m² of green space within a 1km radius, and 59 healthy restaurants – a strong all-round performance that no other city came close to matching.
Liverpool comes in second with 109/140, scoring well on gym affordability (£26.50/month) and healthy restaurant count (66), while Leicester rounds out the top three at 106/140, boosted by the cheapest average gym price of any top-ten city at just £21.50 per month.
Swansea (105) and Sheffield (96) complete the top five best cities to lead a healthy lifestyle, with Swansea performing particularly well on food shop affordability at just £22.31 per week – the second cheapest in the study.
At the other end of the table, London finishes last with a score of just 38/140. Despite having by far the most healthy restaurants of any city (758), London’s expensive food shops (£26.22/week), sky-high gym prices (£56.12/month), and a tiny average green space of just 52,307m² within a 1km radius drag it to the bottom. Derby (41/140), Aberdeen (44/140), and Brighton (45/140) also struggle, each scoring poorly across multiple categories.
The Most and Least Affordable UK Cities for a Healthy Lifestyle
Eating well and staying in shape can be expensive, and where you live has a significant impact on how much you’ll spend. We combined the monthly food shop total with the monthly gym membership price to rank the 35 cities by the true cost of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Dudley is the most affordable city in the UK for healthy living, with a monthly food shop averaging just £90.92 and the cheapest gym memberships in the entire study at £15.00 per month – a combined monthly cost of just £105.92 (food shop calculated on a 4-week month).
Doncaster (£110.65/month combined) and Hull (£111.30 follow closely, both offering £82 weekly food shops and gym prices well below the national average. Leicester(£113.90) and Swansea (£115.49) also rank among the most affordable, helped by some of the cheapest weekly food shops in the study at £92.40 and £89.24 respectively.
At the expensive end, London is the priciest city by a significant margin, with a monthly food shop of £104.88and gym prices averaging £56.12 per month – a combined monthly outlay of £161.00. Aberdeen (£152.52) and Bolton (£149.21) are the next most expensive, with Bolton in particular being penalised by its high average gym cost of £54.33/month despite a relatively cheap food shop.
How UK Cities Compare for Outdoor Access
Access to parks, public gardens, and playing fields is a key component of an active lifestyle, and the differences between cities are stark. Birmingham leads the green space category with an average combined park area of 943,680m² within a 1km radius – by far the largest of any city studied. Bristol (753,173m²) and Newcastle (704,535m²) are the next best-served, with Edinburgh (727,288m²) and Southampton (612,914m²) also offering generous outdoor space.
At the opposite extreme, London’s green space score of just 52,307m² within a 1km radius is the lowest in the entire study, a striking statistic given the capital’s reputation. Doncaster (187,610m²) and Bradford (188,528m²) also rank poorly, offering residents little in the way of accessible outdoor space.
Which UK Cities Have the Best Healthy Eating Scene?
The number of healthy restaurants, including salad bars, health food cafés, and nutritious dining options, varies enormously across UK cities.
London, unsurprisingly, dominates this category with 758 healthy restaurants, more than six times that of the second-placed city. Edinburgh (115) and Manchester (74) rank second and third respectively, while Liverpool (66) and Leeds (63) round out a strong top five for healthy dining options.
At the other end, Barnsley and Rotherham each have just two healthy restaurants, making nutritious dining out an extremely limited proposition. Dudley (3), Wigan (7), and Wakefield (6) are similarly poorly served.
Start a Healthier Lifestyle With Tracka
No matter where your city ranks, building a healthier lifestyle starts with understanding your habits. Tracka uses intelligent insights to help you monitor your routine, track your nutrition, activity, and wellbeing, and uncover the patterns that shape your health. With clear data and personalized recommendations, you can make smarter daily choices – whether that means improving your diet, staying consistent at the gym, or making the most of the green space around you.
Methodology
We first created a seed list of the top 35 cities in the UK by populations. To identify the cities where it is the cheapest and easiest for residents to be healthy, we then analysed 4 key metrics to score each city, including:
- Food: the price of a weekly food shop, consisting of average prices for milk, rice, eggs, chicken, apples, oranges, bananas, onions, tomatoes and lettuce (Numbeo)
- Gym: the average monthly price of a gym membership (Numbeo)
- Green space: the average combined size of parks, public Gardens, or playing fields within a 1km radius of each city (Gov.uk)
- Healthy eating: the number of healthy restaurants (Tripadvisor)
Each city was then given a total score out of 140 across all factors (35 per factor), and ranked to show the top UK cities where it’s cheapest and easiest to be healthy.
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