Torbay the unhappiest place to live? You've got to be kidding...

TORBAY is one of the unhappiest places in the country according to an official survey.

The Bay languishes at the bottom of the regional league table for contentment and fares little better in the UK ranking.

The first annual results of David Cameron's so-called happiness index found 29 per cent of people gave a low or very low rating for 'life satisfaction'.

This is ahead of Bristol at 26.1 per cent, and way above the 21 per cent reported in Devon.

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The regional average is 22 per cent.

Torbay also has among the poorest ratings for 'life satisfaction', with an average score of 7.17 out of 10 — ninth from bottom for the whole of the UK.

Devon scored 7.56 putting it 32nd from top. The regional average is 7.52 out of 10.

Around a fifth of people in Torbay indicated they did not feel the things they did in life were worthwhile, compared to 17 per cent in Devon.

And almost a third (32 per cent) gave a low or very low rating to the question over whether they were happy yesterday, which is above the UK average of 29 per cent.

But the Bay fared better on the anxiety scale. The survey found 38 per cent of residents reporting they felt 'anxious yesterday'.

This is below other parts of the region such as Plymouth which recorded 43 per cent. The UK average is 40 per cent.

Lib Dem MP Adrian Sanders said: "I am sure if we had ages closer to the national average and jobs which are sustainable rather than seasonal and insecure, we would probably be the happiest place."

He added: "We have a wonderful environment and climate. There's good schools and a skilled workforce, but our economy is shot through. We have failed to diversify our economy away from low value employment.

"The prospect of the bypass is the beacon of hope for the future."

The figures come from the first Integrated Household Survey of 200,000 people aged 16 and over between April 2011 and March 2012.

The findings for Torbay were based on a sample size of 948.

It was conducted as part of the Prime Minister's initiative, launched in 2010, to assess the wellbeing of the nation alongside economic data like GDP.

Glenn Everett, ONS programme director for the Measuring National Well-being Programme, said: "By examining and analysing both objective statistics as well as subjective information, a more complete picture of national wellbeing can be formed.

"Understanding people's views of wellbeing is an important addition to existing official statistics and has potential uses in the policy making process and to aid other decision making."

Mr Cameron has described the programme to measure the UK's sense of well-being as crucial to finding out what the Government can do to 'really improve lives'.

But responding to the Government's publication of a 'happiness index', Michael Dugher, Labour's Shadow Cabinet Office Minister said: "This is a statement-of-the-bleeding-obvious, a waste of taxpayers' money and it makes Ministers look even more out of touch.

"You don't need a 'happiness index' to know that people without a job are unhappier than people in work — and we have over a million young people unemployed. You don't need a 'well-being survey' to know people in poor health are unhappier than healthy people — and the Tory-led Government has wasted billions on a top-down NHS reorganisation while sacking 4,000 nurses.

"With a double-dip recession made in Downing Street, you don't need a well-being survey to know that David Cameron is taking Britain in the wrong direction."