There is no Tesco, no Marks & Spencer, and the residents – heavily outnumbered by sheep – are among the poorest in the land.

But while it is surprising that the remote region of Brecknock, Montgomery and Radnor, in Powys, Wales, has been named the happiest place in Britain, more remarkable is the fact that Manchester came a close second.

Manchester’s residents will be particularly pleased with the ranking after the less than generous assessment of the city’s charms by one of its star footballers. In an unguarded moment, the Manchester United defender Nemanja Vidic suggested in an article in a Russian newspaper that the city’s main attraction was the railway station, “where trains leave for other less rainy cities”.

Later the Serbian international attempted to downplay his unhappiness: “I’d like to clarify that I did not make these particular remarks. I spoke about the difficulty I had settling in to life in Manchester, but that does not reflect how I feel now.”

The happiness league was created by researchers from the universities of Sheffield and Manchester after assessing data from the British Household Panel Survey and the census. To balance the effects of factors such as excessively high income or employment levels, the researchers weighted the findings to identify an area’s underlying happiness.

Eight of the top ten areas for happiness were found to be in the North of England or in Scotland, while at the bottom of the league was another surprise, Edinburgh, whose festival and wealth of history and architecture have done nothing to alleviate the misery of its residents.

John Evans, of Powys County Council, was pleased with the results, saying that the landscape was one of the best reasons for living in Brecknock, Montgomery and Radnor. “We have dramatic landscapes. We have the sort of hills that you can walk up, not just look at. We have wide river valleys, rolling hills and the Brecon Beacons. We don’t have the noise and the mess of a city . . . The pace of life is something that’s very relaxing. Within the county we don’t have a single Tesco – though we have planning permission for one – and we don’t have M&S. Perhaps that helps.”

The public sector, agriculture and tourism are the mainstays of the local economy and the pace of life was judged to suit its 130,000 inhabitants perfectly. Mr Evans said: “It’s one of the lowest-earning areas in Wales. We may not earn much but we are obviously happy.”

One of the league’s compilers, Dimitris Ballas, of the University of Sheffield, said that happiness was particularly difficult for a scientist to measure. “There’s a lot of lively debate on what is the most appropriate measure. This is the first time, in Britain at least, that there’s an attempt to take geography into account,” he told the Royal Geographical Society’s conference in London yesterday.

“We found wellbeing is closely linked to staying at your current address. Living in your home for five years boosts happiness.” Being in an enjoyable relationship was arguably the prime cause of happiness, he said.

Other factors included climate, hours of sunshine, noise, and air pollution.

Of Edinburgh’s position, he said: “It means people are less happy than we would expect them to be. Maybe miserable is the right word.”

Glad to be living here

Top five
1 Brecknock, Montgomery and Radnor
2 Manchester
3 West Lothian
4 Cumbernauld & Kilsyth and Monklands
5 Macclesfield

Bottom five
1 Edinburgh
2 Cynon Valley and Rhondda
3 Amber Valley
4 Clydesdale, Cumnock & Doon Valley and Kyle & Carrick
5 Swansea

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Alex Rider exclusive: Incident in Nice
• Green & confused: do energy-saving bulbs work?
• Let’s skip lunch, say the hungry generation