UK's top 10 most relaxing cities ranked - including the happiest and quietest regions

The UK's most relaxing cities have been revealed, based on sunshine, spirit, silence, and space.

Coastal city Plymouth came out on top, followed by Southampton and Stoke-on-Trent in joint second place.

The sweet spot by the sea proved to offer lots of sunshine, high happiness ratings, low noise pollution, and lots of green space, according to new research by Goodrays.

It also boasts the greatest number of sunshine hours, with a sizzling average of 1,732 hours in a year – equivalent to about 4.7 hours of sunshine every day.

The best spot in terms of happiness was Stoke-on-Trent, while Newcastle was voted the best city for green space.

While Derby and Kingston-upon-Hull were awarded the title of best cities in terms of quietness.

Plymouth was voted Britain's most relaxing city overall (Getty Images)

The research came from wellness brand Goodrays, which looked into the UK's most relaxing cities in a bid to help Brits get some much needed R&R.

It comes after a few years of pandemic-induced stress and now the cost of living crisis.

The results suggested which parts of the UK can give you the best of both worlds - the amenities of a big city without compromising on calm and serenity.

Edinburgh was voted the seventh most relaxing city (Getty Images)

The top 10 cities overall were:

1. Plymouth

2. Southampton

2. Stoke-On-Trent

4. Cardiff

5. Kingston-Upon-Hull

6. Derby

7. Edinburgh

8. Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

9. Leicester

10. Liverpool

Cardiff featured among the top five relaxing cities overall (Getty Images)

Newcastle’s abundance of green spaces helped it climb the table into the top 10.

It boasts an average 5.7 parks, public gardens and playing fields in a 1km radius – the most of any city in the analysis.

Sharing the top spot with Derby, Kingston-upon-Hull was crowned one of the quietest cities based on road traffic noise.

While Stoke-on-Trent came out on top in the ‘spirit’ category for general well-being, based on happiness and anxiety scores for city residents.

Stoke-on-Trent came in joint second place with Southampton (Getty Images)

Goodrays co-founder Eoin Keenan said: "The current global mood and pace of modern life are factors which combine to deliver a pretty chaotic experience.

"Anxiety is typically described as a feeling of apprehension or dread in situations where there is no actual real threat and for obvious reasons is at an all-time high in societies across the world.

"Mindfully choosing where we spend our time is another way we can surround ourselves with a positive space that can have beneficial effects on our state of mind and help reduce anxiety."