Key Findings
The analysis showed that generally, the UKās biggest and most populated cities were better prepared for a transition into net zero emissions. This is evident from the fact that the top 10 contained Bristol, Sheffield, London, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Of course, not every densely populated city ranked near the top, as Leicester and Belfast proved with both placing 19th. But generally, it would appear that these two are outliers, with the rest of the bigger cities all ranking in the upper half of the list.
EV Charging Points
When it comes to EV charging points, the city with the most is Coventry having 497.5 per 100,000 of its population. This may be a surprise to many, but the West Midlands city has put millions into developing its vast network of chargers and recent news indicates that investment will continue.Ā
In stark contrast, overall last place Northampton also ranks bottom of the list for this metric, having just 9.45 for every 100,000 residents ā the only city to register under double figures. Huddersfield didnāt fare much better, with 10.59, meaning it is the one location analysed in the study that comes close to last place.
Littering
Aberdeen had a remarkably low number of littering reports, recording just 3.06 per 100,000 people. While this metric isnāt completely foolproof in terms of the actual litter on the streets, it does indicate how big the problem may be in each city ā the more reports, the more likely it's getting out of control.
South Yorkshire-based Sheffield ranks at the opposite end of the table by some distance, reporting 792.72 for every 100,000th person. That was 292.17 more than Birmingham, which placed just above the Steel City.Ā Ā
Search Volume
Manchester places top for search volume, having the highest average number of searches for key terms related to āeco-livingā, recording 512.11 per 100,000 of its population. Overall winner Bristol wasnāt far behind, recording 494.08 searches on average each month.Ā
Newport recorded no searches for the key terms analysed over the last 12 months, meaning it ranks in last place. Every other city on the list had at least some volume for the comprehensive list of terms.Ā Ā
Recycling
Looking at the percentage of waste that has been recycled in each city over the last 12 months, Oxford places top having an impressive 57%. This was one of eight locations that had a ratio over 50%, with Cheltenham, Gloucester, Exeter, Telford, Crawley, Worthing and Watford all following closely.
At the other end of proceedings, Dundee had the lowest figure at just 18% of the cityās waste being recycled. Fellow Scottish city, Edinburgh ranks just above with 21%, tying with Birmingham for second to last position.Ā Ā
Parks and Greenspaces
Despite performing poorly in most categories, Huddersfield ranks top of the pile for distance to parks and greenspaces, with the average citizen having to walk just 280 meters to their nearest one. Similarly, Stoke (which also ranked poorly overall) did well in this metric, recording an average distance just one meter further than Huddersfield.
Colchester was found to be the city with the highest average distance to public parks and greenspaces at 1,331 meters. Only three other locations had a distance of over 1,000, as Solihull (1,175), Maidstone (1,162), and Basingstoke (1,020) ranked just above Essex-based city.Ā Ā
Methodology
The study took 70 of the UKās biggest cities and gathered data for each on the following five metrics:
- EV points per 100k
- Littering reports per 100k in the last 12 months (inverse rank)Ā
- Percentage of waste recycled over the last 12 monthsĀ
- Average monthly searches for a comprehensive list of key terms per 100kĀ
- Average distance to nearest park (inverse rank)Ā
To determine the final rankings, the values of each metric were normalised and added together for each location to assign an overall index score.Ā Ā Ā Ā
