Ely, Soham, and Littleport are in an area identified as the healthiest in Britain. All three are in East Cambridgeshire which has topped an analysis of 17 measures, including mental health, disease, and pollution.
The study from medical cannabis clinic Releaf scores the area 67.7/100 in part for its relatively high life expectancy, low smoker numbers, and prevalence of disease. Average life expectancy in East Cambridgeshire is 88.57 years, the study shows.
However, according to the study, East Cambridgeshire registered carbon dioxide emissions per capita five times those of Greater Manchester.
Tim Kirby, Managing Director of Releaf, said the data underlines the importance of unconventional approaches to health and how it shouldn’t be measured just through physical wellbeing.
He added: “These top-ranking areas exemplify the union between environmental factors, individual behaviours such as smoking habits, and community support systems in fostering healthier lifestyles and prolonging life expectancy.”
The study’s authors crunched regional data from the Office for National Statistics, the NHS, and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities to identify the healthiest local authority areas in Britain.
These were ranked on 17 metrics grouped into five categories: environment, behaviour, life expectancy, mental health, and disease.
Results for each category were converted into an overall score out of 100 to determine the region’s ranking.
Second place Waverley scored 66.7/100. It ranked third in the country with the lowest proportion of current smokers.
The area scored the lowest for diagnoses of new STIs per 100,000 individuals and the top 15 for lowest chlamydia diagnoses per 100,000 people.
Disease figures focused on rates of HIV, syphilis, Gonorrhoea, Chlamydia, genital warts, genital herpes, and Trichomoniasis.
Mental health data is based on estimates of dementia, average life satisfaction, happiness, and anxiety scores.
