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Don't know why I came accross this but just for interest or discusion. 2011 figures

Worst Country in Europe to live... Great Britain

Worst city..Hull

Best country in the world to live...Canada

Best city..Vancouver

Apparently based on crime rate, education,chances of terroism, infrastructure, recreation, health care etc..

Any thoughts on the UK part.

I guess I should add, we recently left Hull and returned to Vancouver

XX Jeannine

You hd no problem getting into Vancouver because of  criminal record? ;D kidding

It's a bit subjective though, isn't it? If you're a career criminal who likes the smell of fish, Hull would be perfect...

Looks like you made the right move!

Perhaps you would give us a personal view comparing the two.  My guess is that each has its good and bad points.

I was just pleased to find Swindon was not in the UK bottom 10.

I think it depends on which list you look at.  Channel 4 did one in 2009 and put Slough at the bottom while Hull was not in the bottom 20.  While The Telegraph put Sidney as no 1.

How is your Yorkshire accent? ;D

If its so bad here then how come everyone want to live here? ;D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World's_most_livable_cities

Interestingly (in relation to that Wiki link) Austria got a mention on R4 today as being the only Western country where suicide rates continue to decline - they've gone up in all other Western countries during the economic downturn....

Quote from: shirlton on July 08, 2011, 08:47:43
If its so bad here then how come everyone want to live here? ;D

So true Shirl.

I love to travel but as the old saying goes East West homes best.

Plenty wrong with the UK but plenty good about it too.

Perhaps the grass is always Greener.......

Where ever you go there is always those 'not so nice' areas and the 'good' areas..and I suppose we see what we want to see..
I noticed that Finland is mention in one of those list..but looking at as 'insider' I don't see that Finland/Helsinki is that  wonderful/different comparing where I live now.
Like Betula said about the grass colour...

Goodlife the link you posted is last years..it has changed this year.

Someone asked about the differences.

May I say up front I met some super folks in Hull and would not fault them personally.

What I found.

Cleanliness in the streets..no contest, Vancouver is clean, no litter etc Hull was covered in it.

Swearing in public.. constant in the UK, I have never heard it here

Racy, rude TV adverts in the UK is rife, here very much not so and a lot of bleeping in movies.

Health service, including Dr, poor in Hull, no choices,long waiting times,always felt nervous as a general rule regarding getting anything serious.NHS services including prescription charges, free this is a big plus for Hull and the UK.We pay a medical plan about 60 sterling a month and we pay for physio, and part pay for prescription charges up to $300  a year then they are free, but not all are covered which is bad, however the service is top of the line, I cannot fault it, we feel very safe in that regard. However to be fair, when John collapsed four days before we flew back the hospital pulled out all the stops to get a pacemaker in him and staff came in on the Easter weekend specially to get it sorted so we could travel, they certainly went the extra mile, but they had cancelled the annual heart specialist appointments two years before that he had for 15 years as they knew he would need a pacemaker, if they had kept an eye on him he would not have collapsed which is very scary as he had to be resuscitated twice Then the surgery I had while there left me permanently disabled, it was not really investigated and sort of pushed under the rug..here it has been very much investigated and the injury found, so  regarding the hospital service I would have to say is variable and not reliable. We found the hospitals dirty too.

General friendliness of folk, not very good in Hull,folks don't seem to know one another, strong feeling of negativity around, whereas here it is totally the opposite.

Customer service in shops... the very worst I have  ever seen in the 7 countries I am familiar with..here it is very good.

Vandalism, crime rate. We had our car  broken into 4 times in Hull,our BBQ went twice ,many things went from our rear garden and our plot was raided several times,home shed broken into several times too. Here once in about a total of forty years we have had a break in, we found out later it was a friend of a friend.

Not a lot of recreational facilities in Hull especially for the families and young folks, here there is everything you could imagine and much of it is free or very reasonable so kids are doing everything in sport's and pastimes, same with stuff for the elderly , in fact everyone really. Again to be fair, we are surrounded by lakes, etc so lots of fishing and boating, schools are open at night for gym facilities and classes for adults. There is a lot more money around generally here so Hull may not have the resources to provide these things.

Power, phones, petrol etc is cheaper, we don`t pay for water I think our money goes further here ..but we don;t get a winter fuel allowance etc.

In Hull, everything in schools is provided for children, here the kids have to buy their own paper, binders, school supplies generally each term and it does amount to quite a bit. Lurches were free to all kids for  part of the time I was there and other times free to low income families, there was also a free fruit programme and free breakfast clubs, there is nothing like that here.

So all in all, yes  I agree with the 2011 results,,but I say again,,this is one city, I cannot comment on the UK as a whole as we didn't;t move about when there, and again I repeat I met some super folks there so I am not faulting the folks at all.. not one bit.

Definitely not the grass is greener..that only would be true if the grass was not greener when you get there making it but a dream.

Actually that would have been true when we went to the UK in 2000, we thought the grass was greener..life would be  a slower pace  a good quiet place to retire too, but  sadly it had all changed.

XX Jeannine