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Find the best place to live in England, Scotland or Wales

However, if you are not sure where to even start, here is a list of the 36 English, Scottish, and Welsh cities and towns over 180,000 people, ordered by size. This overview of British cities and their key statistics might help you make a decision about where to live in the UK.

Britain’s biggest cities all have their own character. Some are very old, some new. All are diverse and interesting and have become home to communities from around the world. Some cities are known for their beauty or architecture, others for their culture or sports focus.

• Comparing the data listed for each city (population density, median rental cost, area crime rate and average distance to the nearest park), Stoke-on-Trent emerges as the best large city because it is in the only place that is in the top 5 of the list for two of the criteria (low crime rate and short distance to nearest park). It is also within the top 10 cheapest cities for renting and has one of the top 20 lowest population densities.
• Peterborough is in the top 5 for population density, in the top 10 for crime rate, and in the top 20 for distance to parks and rental cost. Also scoring well using this data is Derby: in the top 10 for average distance to the nearest park and lowest rents, and in the top 20 for low crime and low population density.
• Milton Keynes offers a low population density (top 5), low crime rate (top 10), and a short distance to the nearest park (top 20), but rents are relatively high. Another option is Brighton, which is among the top 5 lowest crime rates and also in the top 20 for closeness to the nearest park and low population density. Other cities scoring well on at least 3 parameters include Swindon,  Bradford, and Bolton.
  
• If rental price and safety are your most important factors, Hull and Aberdeen have the lowest crime rates within the top 5 cheapest cities. Consider also Swansea or Plymouth: both are in the top 10 cities with the lowest rents and crime rates, plus Swansea has a very low population density. As a bonus, these four cities also have sandy beaches nearby. Sadly there’s no guarantee of great weather!

London was founded by the Romans as a port city over 2,000 years ago. Modern London is actually centred on 2 old cities: the City of London (famous as a centre of global finance) and the City of Westminster, which lies to the west and is where the government and parliament is based. Many old towns and villages also now lie within modern London’s boundaries, which means each area has a different character and identity. London has been one of the world’s most important cities for a very long time. For nearly 100 years from 1831, it was the world’s largest city too. Its wealth and influence come from finance, insurance, media, technology and the arts.

Birmingham

In medieval times, Birmingham was a small town. It grew rapidly during the 1700s and became famous because it was home to thousands of skilled craftsmen as well as inventors, and scientific and academic thinkers. Its position in the centre of England made it a transport hub and famously, there are more miles of canals than Venice – although they are much less obvious. The city was heavily bombed in World War 2, and then rebuilt in the 1960s and 70s. Today the economy is mostly service-based. Birmingham has a very active arts scene and has become famous as the location for the Peaky Blinders TV series.

Glasgow

Glasgow (Glaschu in Scottish Gaelic) started as a small fishing village, but it grew into Scotland’s most important port with the trans-Atlantic trade in slaves, sugar, cotton and tobacco in the 1700s and 1800s. It was once also famous for industry – by the end of the 1800s it produced half of Britain’s ships and a quarter of the world’s railway engines. The city has many examples of stunning architecture and has inspired artists, inventors and novelists. During the 20th century, it suffered a severe decline, followed by redevelopment. It now attracts thousands of tourists every year to its cultural sites.

Brighton

Brighton is a vibrant seaside city that is famous for its diverse, creative community and its tolerance. The city hosts many annual festivals, including Brighton Arts Festival, Brighton Pride and Disability Pride. It is also well known for its attractive architecture, much of it from the 1700s and 1800s when it developed from a fishing port into a popular resort, a favourite of King George IV. Brighton is now linked to the neighbouring town of Hove; the official name of the city is Brighton & Hove.

Northampton

Northampton is at least 1,000 years old. In Norman times (about 1100), it was surrounded by stone walls and had a royal castle. Much of the town was destroyed by the civil war and a fire in the 1600s – St Peter’s church is one of the few Norman buildings that remain. In the 1800s, the town became wealthy because of its shoe and leather factories, but the population remained relatively small at about 90,000, even in 1930. Its real growth came after the 1960s when it became a commuter town for London. It is surrounded by excellent farming land and many people work in the food industry, with the brewer Carlsberg among the companies based in Northampton.

Portsmouth

It is not obvious, but Portsmouth is actually on a small island that lies just off the south coast of Britain. Founded by the Romans, Portsmouth has been an important Naval base since the time of King John in 1200, while the threat of invasion from France meant that it was heavily fortified. In 1803, it was the site of the world’s first mass-production machines. Heavy bombing in World War 2 and modern redevelopment have changed the look of the city. Today it is Britain’s second-busiest passenger port, while 10% of people work in defence or shipbuilding. It is famous for its annual kite festival.

Luton

Luton has a history stretching back to about 600CE. The town was once famous for hat-making. In the 1800s there were over 500 workshops making hats plaited from wheat straw grown locally (the population was fairly small, but many workers came from surrounding villages). By 1900, the population was nearly 40,000 and the streets were lined with factories for straw hat makers and associated items, like hat boxes and ribbons – an industry that has now gone. Vauxhall opened a car factory here in 1907. Today, Luton Airport is one of the biggest employers.

Aberdeen

People have lived in the Aberdeen area for thousands of years. The city lies between the mouths of two rivers, the Dee and the Don. Through fishing, it became an important port with a population of about 10,000 by 1700 and by 1801 had reached 26,000. It was also known for shipbuilding, paper-making and granite quarrying, and these industries lasted until the 1970s. The discovery of oil and gas under the North Sea has made Aberdeen an important energy city. Electronics, IT and agricultural research are other important industries. It is called Obar Dheathain in Scottish Gaelic.

Norwich

Norwich (rhymes with ‘porridge’) is Britain’s most complete medieval city. It dates back to about 600CE and was a busy river port that grew to one of England’s largest cities by 1006, when it was attacked by Vikings. Later the Normans (who invaded England in 1066) built a castle in Norwich – this was followed by city walls in 1280. The wool trade helped the city become wealthy, but it fell behind during the Industrial Revolution times because of a lack of natural resources, although there was manufacturing of shoes and mustard. It now has a service-based economy but is also known for the arts.

Bournemouth

For a long time, no one lived in the Bournemouth area because it was mostly just barren heathland and sandy beaches. This changed with the new fashion for ‘sea bathing’. In 1816, Bournemouth was developed as a health resort. From a few villas, it gradually grew to a town of 17,000 people by 1890. A new railway link meant that by 1900 there were about 60,000 people, including lots of artists and writers. Many hotels, theatres and cinemas were built before World War 2. Today, it is not as popular, but the stretch of coast between Bournemouth and neighbouring Poole has some of Britain’s most expensive houses.

Swindon

Until about 1810, Swindon was a small market town. Its population started to grow when canals came to the area after 1810. There was bigger population growth after 1840 when Swindon was chosen as a place to house workers and engine repair sheds for the new Great Western Railway between Bristol and London. During World War 2, other types of manufacturing started as part of the war effort. The train works have now closed and Swindon is now better known for IT, logistics and financial services.

Milton Keynes

Pronounced ‘mil-ton keens’, Milton Keynes is a purpose-built city that was built mostly on farmland in the 1960s, designed to help ease overpopulation in London. Unusually for a British city, it is built on a grid system. It features modernist architecture and a huge central shopping mall, but instead of tower blocks, there is a focus on low-rise buildings and millions of trees. Milton Keynes is a popular location for businesses because it is within easy reach of central London and the M1 motorway.

Swansea

Swansea (Abertawe in Welsh) has a strategic coastal location, so when the Normans invaded in 1066 they built a castle, parts of which still remain. For a long time, it was small and focused on trade in wool, and coal mined from the surrounding area. However, in the 1700s it grew because it started specialising in smelting copper from ore mined in Cornwall, which could arrive by sea. Soon it started smelting ores from other countries and by the 1850s there were more than 600 furnaces. The copper industry declined in the late 1800s, but Swansea remained an important industrial city. The town centre was destroyed by German bombing in World War 2 and redeveloped. It now has a service-based economy.

Southend-on-Sea

Once just a small collection of huts, Southend grew in the late 1790s as a sea-bathing resort. The boom time was in the late 1800s after the railways made it accessible to people across the country, who would come for their summer holidays. With seven miles of beaches, tourism is still important, and its closeness to London means it is also popular as a home for commuters. Southend has the longest pier in the world, a metal structure that sticks out to sea and contains a variety of entertainment venues.

Bolton

Bolton was once a small market town, but it became a centre of textile production after weavers from Belgium settled in the 1100s. For centuries, this work was mostly done by people in their own homes, but during the 1800s factories started to appear – both for textiles and the associated machinery. By 1901 there were 168,000 people living in Bolton. The textiles and heavy industry have mostly gone, replaced by IT services, call centres, data processing and Warburton’s, the bread manufacturer.

Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough (pronounced ‘middles-bruh’) is a port town that grew in the 1830s on the site of a farm. The farm was lay on the bank of the River Tees, a good location for the transport of coal from surrounding hills. Investors bought plots of land and by 1851 there were 7,600 people living there. The town was also the ideal place for shipbuilding and iron production – it became world famous in the early 1890s and was nicknamed ‘Ironopolis’. Middlesbrough was bombed in World War 2 and there was extensive redevelopment afterwards. Although much of the heavy industry has gone, the port remains important. Other industries include insurance, chemicals and engineering.

Peterborough

Peterborough (pronounced ‘peter-burruh’) is one of Britain’s newer cities, set within the flat lands of Cambridgeshire. There has been a settlement here for over 1,000 years, however it was very small until the railways arrived in the 1850s. Local clay deposits were perfect for making bricks and the town grew. There was more growth in the 1960s when Peterborough was chosen as a place for rehousing people from the overcrowded parts of London, with ambitious urban planning transforming the town into a city. Many jobs are in the retail, service or distribution industries.