Historic Yorkshire city tops list of best places for families to live

Researchers considered a number of factors before arriving at their conclusion including the quality of education, neighbourhood safety, child care costs, availability of affordable property, local amenities and green spaces.

York is followed by the coastal city of Plymouth, which takes second place this year, having dropped from first place in 2014. Stoke-on-Trent retained its third place position again this year, securing its spot largely due to its appealing house prices.

Karl Elliott, spokesperson at finance specialists OneFamily, which carried out the survey, said: “To secure the top spot in the OneFamily Hotspots Report is a fantastic achievement and York, with its excellent education, rich history, and picturesque surroundings, is very deserving of its place.”

York is a new entry in the top ten cities and those behind the report say it owes its number one slot to factors including strong educational results, with over 60 per cent of students scoring A*-C grades at Key Stage 4, significantly higher than the national average of 49.7 per cent.

OneFamily has also created a top 20 postcode chart of the best places for families to live, featuring towns and villages, and also listed the best places for commuter living in the report, which included Pocklington, near York, Swanland, near Hull and Donfield, near Sheffield.

While Driffield was named as the 19th best postcode for families to live with Wokingham in Berkshire coming out on top. Others in the top 20 included Middlewich in Cheshire, Carterton in Oxfordshire and Cullompton in Devon.

Families can find out more information and use the Family Hotspots calculator to find the best places in England and Wales to live by visiting the website www.onefamily.com/hotspots/check-your-postcode