Which are the most thoughtful communities in Britain?
We can all look back on the last year and admire the level of community spirit that we’ve seen in the UK - and around the world. Friends, families, neighbours and strangers have all gone out of their way to help one another.
During the peak of the pandemic we saw a massive amount of people volunteering to help the NHS, care homes, charities and shielding neighbours. All of this goodness left us wondering, where actually are the most thoughtful places in the UK? So we gathered a tonne of data to discover which parts of Britain are always putting their community first.
How have we defined thoughtfulness in the communities?
The definition of giving back is to “willingly offer help to other people who need it and will appreciate it”. So for our research, we measured thoughtfulness in these 5 areas:
Number of registered charities
Number of volunteering opportunities
Number of community gardening schemes
Recycling rate
Electric car ownership
After identifying the number of opportunities to give back to the community, we then divided these in relation to each location’s population size and normalised the score to give a ranking out of 100. This allowed us to discover where the most thoughtful places in the UK are!
Where are the most thoughtful places in the UK?
Coming in at number 1, the most thoughtful place in the UK is Swindon! With an overall score of 79 out of 100 (amazing!) Swindon, in the West of England, has proven to house a super thoughtful bunch of people. Nearby neighbours Bath and Oxford came a close joint second with a score of 78/10. See the map below to find where else made it on our leaderboard of the most thoughtful places in the UK.
Where’s the best place to work with charities in the UK?
Looking to work with some charities in the UK? Well, the places with the most charities in the UK (per person) are Bedford, with almost 1,300 for their relatively small population. For the second best place, we find ourselves in Scotland, with Edinburgh home to almost 3,000 charities. Other places that fill our top 5 are Bath, Wokingham, and Gateshead.
Where has the most volunteering opportunities (per person) in the UK?
Is there a better way to give back to your local community than volunteering? To find the place with the most volunteering opportunities per person, you have to head up to the Lake District’s biggest city, Carlisle. Other areas great for UK volunteering include Burnley in Lancashire, Cheltenham and Gloucester, in the South West.
Where are the most community garden schemes (per person) in the UK?
If you’re an avid gardener looking to make a difference in a local community and improve the overall scenery, then Truro is the place to be. With 15 community gardening schemes, Truro has the highest density of green fingered groups in the country. The next best places for community gardening are Blackpool, Rochdale, Sevenoaks and Exeter.
Which places in the UK have the highest recycling rate?
Recycling is a big part of our everyday lives and something we and Bloom & Wild take really seriously. And it turns out that Bridgend in Wales take their recycling responsibility seriously too, with a recycling rate of 69.7%. Wrexham, Caerphilly, Swansea and St. Albans are also big on recycling which is great to hear!
Which places are the best for Ultra Low Emission Vehicle ownership?
Lastly, we discovered that Slough currently has the most registered ultra-low emission vehicles, with just over 4,500 plug-in vehicles cleanly roaming the roads. Peterborough, Swindon, Milton Keynes and Sevenoaks also all made the top 5 in ULEV ownership rates in the country.
By carrying out this research our hearts were warmed with just how many places in the UK are prioritising thoughtful acts. And during the pandemic, these thoughtful actions have only increased. In Ottery St. Mary, Devon, a flower club had been cheering up strangers’ days by leaving bouquets around the town for people to adopt. While in Worcestershire, someone created an entire ‘acts of kindness’ movement, where people have donated thousands of pounds worth of PPE to hospitals. Many companies even gave their employees the chance to send Bloom & Wild flowers to their loved ones, just because…These random acts of thoughtfulness have made every community a kinder, stronger place during these testing times.Want to get involved and surprise someone with an act of kindness? Why not send a thoughtful gift of flowers to light up their day.We do free next-day flower delivery to most parts of the UK, so it’s easy to feel connected even when apart. Sources:
https://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/
https://do-it.org/https://www.rhs.org.uk/get-involved/find-a-group
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/waste-and-recycling-statistics
https://www.sepa.org.uk/environment
https://gov.wales/
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/all-vehicles-veh01