Why People Live Where They Do

I’ve long believed that choosing a place to live is the single most important decision we make. It has an impact on everything from our career and bank accounts to the people we meet, the relationships we forge, and where we send our kids to school, not to mention our overall happiness and well-being.

A new report from the Centre for Cities—a London-based research and policy institute—takes one of the most detailed looks at this question I’ve seen to date. It uses comprehensive survey data from urban areas across Great Britain to examine what urbanites and suburbanites value the most (and like the least) about the neighborhoods they live in, including key factors like housing costs, proximity to jobs, transit, amenities, open space, and quality of both built and natural environments. The report draws from two YouGov surveys: a national survey of more than 2,000 people across 59 cities in Great Britain and a more targeted survey of 1,725 people in Brighton, Manchester, Sheffield, and Swindon.