Credit: Shutterstock
Save
Imagine a classic English city with postcard-pretty cobbled streets, a towering cathedral, and enough cosy pubs to see you through any weather. Now picture that same place plunged into a deep winter funk, where the post-Christmas slump hits harder than most.
According to a fresh British Gas survey of 2,000 Brits, this spot tops the charts as the UK’s “most depressed” city come mid-to-late January – not because it’s a grim spot year-round, but because the short days, biting cold, and endless grey skies make the season feel truly brutal.
The UK’s most depressed city
Norwich has been dubbed the UK’s ‘most depressed’ city in winter by a new survey – but the picture is much more about seasonal gloom than a fundamentally miserable place to live.
A British Gas survey of 2,000 people across the UK suggests that Norwich residents feel the winter slump more keenly than most. One in four Norwich respondents said they feel genuinely depressed from mid to late January, blaming grim weather and a lack of daylight.
Over half 57 percent said they’re currently craving sunlight and warmth, which will surprise exactly no one who’s trudged through a grey January school run or commute.
Norwich tops the list of cities where people say they feel low at this time of year, but it’s very specifically about the mid‑winter period rather than a year‑round state of despair.
The UK’s ‘most depressed’ cities, according to the survey
British Gas’ data paints a wider picture of a nation collectively fed up with January. Across the UK, 42 percent of people admitted to feeling more depressed in January than any other month, and half said they feel more irritable at the start of the year.
Here’s how the cities in the survey stack up:
Norwich: 25% report feeling genuinely depressed mid–late January Swansea: 24% – joint second for winter blues Stoke-on-Trent: 24% – shares second place with Swansea Manchester: 21% – big city, big January slump Edinburgh: 16% – joint fourth place Glasgow: 16% – also joint fourth Oxford: 16% – rounds off the fourth-place trio
The survey gives a flavour of how people feel, but it’s far from definitive. Only 2,000 people were surveyed nationwide – a tiny slice when you remember that Norwich alone has around 150,000 residents.
The article notes that other data paints different pictures: an Office for National Statistics report last year found the north east of England to be the most miserable region overall, while a Rightmove study crowned Barking and Dagenham in east London as the UK’s least happy neighbourhood.
So, Norwich being the “most depressed” is really about this specific poll and time of year, not a settled national verdict on the city’s quality of life.
Don’t worry, though: sample sizes aside, the evenings are already lengthening, spring’s on the horizon, and those charming streets won’t stay shrouded in gloom forever.