There are lots of differences between the cities and regions of the UK, and if you are looking to move, understanding where you can get the best value for money and quality of life is very helpful.
To give a clear idea of where the best performing places in the UK for quality of life are right now, we have prepared uSwitch's Best Places to Live in The UK Quality of Life Index – an analysis of all of the UK's 138 statistical regions for statistics relevant to quality of life like cost of living, life expectancy, average incomes, employment figures, and more.
East Sussex CC, a statistical region in the South East of England is a place whose stats for quality of life have declined since the previous uSwitch study in 2013 – and by a substantial margin - falling from 70th on our list to 117th in 2015.
Here are some of the quality of life statistics for East Sussex CC that were used in our 2015 study:
Employment
East Sussex CC has quite good employment rates with 75% of the people who live in the area in paid employment. A fairly average 40% of people work full time hours of between 35 and 45 per week, though a reasonably high percentage at 26% are working more hours than this, which is not considered a good work life balance.
Income
Incomes in East Sussex CC are mediocre for the UK as a whole with the average gross weekly income for East Sussex CC individuals in 2015 at £451.74. This is very low for the South East of England, however, which elsewhere enjoys the highest overall gross weekly incomes in the UK.
Household annual disposable income in East Sussex CC is quite high, however, at £18,499.
House Prices
House prices in East Sussex CC could be considered high by UK standards overall, and moderate by South East standards at an average of £218k. Rent in East Sussex CC is high, at £80 per person, per week.
Life Expectancy
Average life expectancy in East Sussex CC is high for the UK in general and also for England at 80 for men and 84 for women.
Life expectancy is an influential factor that insurance companies use to determine life insurance premiums. You can check our advice guide on how to get a cheaper life insurance policy.
Living Costs
Food prices are among the highest in the UK in East Sussex CC with the average household weekly grocery shop in 2015 costing £63.
This is equal to coastal places in the South like Southampton and Portsmouth, and actually higher than in London and the surrounding areas like Surrey and Berkshire.
Other Important Factors
East Sussex CC performs less well than you might expect for mobile phone signal at 93% of the region, and has fairly bad broadband speeds of 16.4Mbps on average, making it one of the worst places in the South East of England for technology.
Use our broadband postcode checker to see which deals and what speeds are on offer in your area.
East Sussex CC has a few positives like good employment and high disposable income, but due to things like its mediocre technology, very high cost of living and expensive housing it resides in the bottom third of our table of uSwitch's best places for quality of life in the UK for 2015.
More to life than rankings
At uSwitch, we know that there is more to life than rankings, stats and figures, and our Qualify of Life Index merely highlights the vast differences in the experiences of people across the UK.
Whether you're living in the best city or the worst, millions of households in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland face financial struggles including rising energy bills and credit card debt. That's why it's more important than ever for households to assess their budgets, and uSwitch.com offers a great way to start.
Below you can find ways to save on everything from car insurance to mobile bills.
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Place to Live 2015 — Where did your region rank?
About the research
The uSwitch.com study assessed 138 local areas (NUTS3 regions) for 26 factors such as salaries, disposable household income, and the cost of essential goods including food bills, fuel costs and energy bills. The study also factored in lifestyle issues like hours of sunshine, working hours and life expectancy to ensure a full picture of the quality of life in each NUTS3 region.
For more about the study's methodology, read the full press release .