South Tyneside residents are the most unhappy in the North East, according to new official figures

The report released by the Office for National Statistics this month measures the wellbeing of people across the UK from April 2018 to May 2019.

It ranks factors such as happiness and anxiety to estimate the life satisfaction within different local authority areas.

South Tyneside residents were asked to rate how happy they were the previous day out of 10 – 0 being “not at all” and 10 “completely” - as well as how anxious they felt, how satisfied they are with their life generally and to what extent they felt the things they do in life are worthwhile.

The borough was rated the most unhappy area in the North East, scoring an average of 7.36 out of 10, with 12% of residents rating their happiness as “low”, a score between 0-4.

Residents in the borough are also among the most anxious, with an average score of 3.12 second only to Sunderland, which was the most anxious area at 3.21.

According to the report the well-being of residents could be impacted by a number of factors including local environment, crime, housing, health, employment and income deprivation.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, as the area performed marginally better for residents’ general life satisfaction and how worthwhile they their life was.

South Tyneside Council said the health and wellbeing of residents was one of its key priorities.

Coun Tracey Dixon, Lead Member for Independence and Wellbeing, said: “More than 71% of South Tyneside residents who responded to the survey scored their happiness as high or very high.

“Health is one of our key priorities and as a council we support a number of initiatives to promote mental and physical wellbeing, including the recently-launched NHS mental health campaign, Every Mind Matters.

“We also support other key campaigns around smoking and alcohol and the associated health issues.

She added: “The #LoveSouthTyneside campaign aims to recognise and promote civic pride and community spirit, raise awareness of volunteering opportunities and community events and promote South Tyneside as a great place to live, invest and bring up families.”