Move over Glasgow, it turns out the capital is the kindest place to live in Scotland
For years now, Glasgow has prided itself on its reputation as the friendliest city in Scotland. However, this has been thrown into doubt after a new report from Travelodge named Edinburgh as the kindest location in the nation.
The report was commissioned by Travelodge in order to celebrate Random Act of Kindness Day on February 17th and the results highlighted just how pleasant an environment the Scottish capital provides, revealing that more than half of the people in Edinburgh perform a random act of kindness every single day.
The kindness report by Travelodge surveyed over 2,000 adults across Scotland in order to find out the nation’s views on random acts of kindness. These acts included holding a lift for someone, holding a door open for someone, helping someone with a heavy bag or item of shopping and simply offering a friendly smile to a stranger.
The results of the kindness report found that 55 per cent of people in Edinburgh performed a random act of kindness every day, making it the friendliest place in Scotland. Inverness came in second place, with Aberdeen taking bronze in third place.
Scotland’s second city, Glasgow, landed at ninth place on the list with just short of a third (32%) of Glaswegians perform a daily act of kindness, according to the Travelodge report. Greenock rounded out the top ten.
Travelodge’s report also revealed that more than a quarter of Scottish citizens believe that, on the whole, more daily kindness is shown north of the border when compared to England, particularly the South.
This survey from Travelodge isn’t the first time Edinburgh has beaten the competition and been named as a great place to live. A study conducted in November 2017 by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) listed the city as the best place to live and work in Scotland for the fifth year in a row. This research — part of PwC’s Good Growth for Cities index — took key factors like employment, health and income into account.
The same report also praised the capital for its impressive rate of successful business start-ups, particularly in tech-based industries. No other Scottish cities manged to break the top ten in PwC’s report.
Even more impressive, Edinburgh was listed in Conde Nast Traveller Magazine’s top 20 friendliest cities in the world in 2016. The survey, which comprised of votes from 128,000 individuals, listed Edinburgh as the 11th friendliest city across the globe. It was the only UK city to enter the top 20.
When commenting on what makes Edinburgh so unique, the magazine stated that the city has a “great mix of ancient and modern with great energy — be it on a typical Tuesday or during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.”
Only six European cities were mentioned in the magazine’s list, including Ireland’s Dublin and Galway, Krakow in Poland, Bruges in Belgium, Icelandic capital Reykjavik and of course Edinburgh.
City leader Councillor Andrew Burns expressed his delight at the time, saying the achievement was “another tremendous — and richly deserved — accolade for Edinburgh”. He went on to describe the listing as “a huge tribute to the warmth and kindness of the people of this great city”.
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