Forth Valley people are the second unhappiest in Scotland

The second annual Happiness Index from Bank of Scotland aims to quantify how happy people are in the communities in which they live and it found that people in the Central region are the second least happy.

The Kingdom of Fife made a notable improvement over the last 12 months to overtake the Highlands and be crowned the happiest area of Scotland.

Overall, about two-fifths of Fifers said they were “very happy” living in their community, a score of +56 on the index, almost double last year’s 23 per cent.

Central’s index score was +33, while Scotland’s average as a whole is +40.

Further analysis shows that women are again happier than men, with both recording a slight improvement on last year.

Those aged 65 and over remain the happiest in Scotland, although there was a slight dip in their score compared to 2015. People in the 18-24 age bracket were found to be the least happy.

Rachel Bright, Bank of Scotland’s head of customer service, said: “We published the results from our first Happiness Index just over a year ago, where the Highlands came out as Scotland’s happiest region.

“This year, Fife’s happiness score has increased over 20 points, putting them at the top of the Happiness Index and pushing the Highlands in to second place.”

The research was completed by YouGov and the findings are based on 3,056 online interviews.