Tools
UK relocation quiz
Tell us what matters most and we will rank areas against your priorities using open data.
In short
The UK relocation quiz ranks scored UK areas against your own priorities: rate eleven factors from not important to essential, and the twelve category scores behind every area report are recombined using your weights instead of ours. Your answers are matched against 539 scored UK areas.
- Takes about a minute, with no sign-up, no email address and nothing stored.
- Uses the same open government data as every area report, only weighted differently.
- Results link straight through to the full report for each area.
How your answers change the ranking
Every area on this site already carries twelve category scores out of 100. The overall score you see on a report combines them using our default weights, shown in the table below. The quiz replaces those weights with yours.
Each answer is a multiplier: "not important" halves a category weight, "nice to have" leaves it alone, "important" doubles it and "essential" triples it. The weighted scores are then recombined and renormalised over whichever categories actually have data for that area, exactly as the standard overall score is, so an area with a missing dataset is neither rewarded nor punished for the gap.
Two things follow from that, and both are worth knowing before you read your results. First, marking everything "essential" changes nothing: multiplying every weight by three leaves the proportions identical, so you get our standard ranking back. The quiz only works when you are willing to say what matters less. Second, a single "essential" against a category with a small base weight, broadband at five per cent for instance, moves the list less than an "important" against a fifteen per cent category such as cost of living. The table shows the base weight each priority starts from.
The eleven priorities, and what each one measures
| Priority | Category | Base weight | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keeping monthly costs low | Cost of living | 15% | ONS |
| Being able to buy a home | Affordability | 15% | HM Land Registry |
| Good weather and sunshine | Weather | 10% | Met Office |
| Low crime and feeling safe | Safety | 10% | police.uk |
| Short commute and good transport | Transport | 5% | DfT NaPTAN |
| Fast broadband for working from home | Broadband | 5% | Ofcom Connected Nations |
| Good schools | Education | 5% | DfE and devolved governments |
| Access to healthcare | Healthcare | 5% | OpenStreetMap |
| Pubs, restaurants and things to do | Lifestyle | 5% | OpenStreetMap |
| Clean air | Environment | 5% | Defra UK-AIR |
| A strong local job market | Employment | 10% | ONS / NOMIS |
Affordability is scored from house prices against local earnings, so "being able to buy a home" is measured relative to local wages rather than on the asking price alone.
What the quiz does not do
It does not know your job, your family, your existing ties to a place or anything you have not told it, and it does not attempt to. It ranks published statistics against stated priorities, which is a genuinely useful way to build a shortlist and a poor way to make the final decision. Treat the top ten as places worth reading about properly, then open the full report for each one.
It also cannot rank what is not yet indexed. If a town matters to you, search it directly for a full report rather than looking for it in a list.
Questions about the relocation quiz
How does the UK relocation quiz work?
You rate eleven priorities from "not important" to "essential". Each rating becomes a multiplier on that category weight, the twelve category scores for every indexed area are recombined using your weights instead of ours, and the areas are ranked by the result. Nothing is added to the data; the same open figures are simply weighed differently.
How long does the quiz take?
About a minute. Every question is pre-set to "nice to have", so you only need to change the ones you actually care about, and you can submit at any point.
Do I need to sign up or give an email address?
No. The quiz asks for no personal details, stores no profile and requires no account. Your answers are used to rank areas in that one request and are not retained.
What does the match score out of 100 mean?
It is the same 0 to 100 scale used everywhere on the site, recomputed with your weights. A match of 78 means the area scores 78 against your priorities, not that it is a 78 per cent fit for you personally.
Why is my home town not in the results?
Only areas already in the scored index are ranked, and the index grows over time. Every UK postcode, town, city and council still has a full report: search it directly rather than waiting for it to appear here.
Can I change my answers and run it again?
Yes, as often as you like. Changing one priority from "nice to have" to "essential" can move the list noticeably, which is a useful way to see how much a single factor is driving your shortlist.
Is the result advice?
No. It is a ranking of open statistics against weights you chose, and it is guidance rather than a recommendation. Read the full report for any area before acting on its position in a list.