Diverse areas are healthiest, study finds

Researchers at the University of Manchester say diversity is associated with higher social cohesion and greater tolerance.

They also found that someone from an ethnic minority is less likely to report racial discrimination in an ethnically diverse neighbourhood. And that a neighbourhood’s high level of deprivation – rather than diversity – is linked with poor physical and mental health, low social cohesion and race discrimination.

Professor James Nazroo, director of the university’s Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity, said: “Our research demonstrates the disadvantages of living in deprived areas but the positives of living in ethnically diverse areas.”