Rutland has been named as one of the ten most friendly towns in the UK, recosngised in a survey by the University of Oxford.

The National Conversation Survey invited people from across the UK to rate how lonely they feel, how many neighbours they feel they can trust and how proud they are about the community they live in, whether that be a town, village or city.

The hopes for the National Conversation Survey was to create resources that shows how people feel about where they live, rather than focussing on demographic or voting statistics.

The survey found that 79.9% Rutlanders are proud to live in Rutland, a statistic that is 97% higher than average in England.

It also found that 87.6% of Rutlanders say different backgrounds get on well there, as well as 72.2% feel as though they belong in their neighbourhood. This is higher than the 62% average for England.

Additionally, 75.9% of Rutlanders say they chat to their neighbours at least monthly, and almost 25% of people formally volunteer at least once a month - significantly higher than the 16.5% national average.

Rutland was ranked the 8th friendliest place in the UK, with the towns Oakham and Uppingham mentioned for the presence of independent shops and picturesque setting.

Rutland was beat by: Stroud in Gloucester, Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, Richmond upon Thames in London, the Derbyshire Dales, West Devon, South Hams in Devon and the Isles of Scilly coming in the top spot.

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