Revealed: The UK’s Best Places to be Single 2026

Norwich, not London, is the UK’s best place to be single in 2026 – according to a new data-led ‘freedom index’ that looks beyond dating apps and digs into what day-to-day single life is actually like in different parts of the country.

Commissioned by adult services platform AdultWork, the study ranked 346 local authorities across England, Scotland and Wales using five factors: the size of the local dating pool, how affordable it is to rent a one-bed on a typical salary, the number of daytime and dining spots per 10k people, the strength of the nightlife, and how safe the area is. Each place was given a weighted score out of 100 to reveal where single adults are likely to enjoy the best balance of opportunity, social life and cost of living.

The surprise winner: Norwich

Norwich takes the top spot, with a ‘freedom index’ score of 63.78 out of 100. Around 65.1% of the city’s adults are legally single – more than three in five – which works out at 78,635 single people and puts Norwich among the highest dating-pool ratios in the country.

It also performs well on going-out potential, with 650 dining and daytime venues (53.8 per 10,000 adults) and 160 pubs and bars to choose from. The average annual rent for a one-bedroom home comes in at £9,360, which is about 30.5% of the local median salary of £30,716 – not the cheapest in the index, but far from London levels.

Who else made the top 10?

Liverpool lands in second place, scoring 62.39, with 254,020 single adults making up 63% of its population and a lower rent burden than Norwich: £8,064 a year for a one-bed, or 25.6% of the local median wage of £31,476. The city also boasts 1,775 restaurants and cafés plus 521 pubs and bars, among the highest venue-per-person ratios in the study.

Third place goes to Powys in mid Wales, which stands out for affordability and sociability: it has the cheapest one-bed rents in Wales at £5,556 a year (17.9% of typical local pay), a pub-and-bar density that ranks second out of all 346 authorities, and a strong showing for restaurants and cafés. Its one drawback is a relatively modest dating pool, with 43.1% of adults legally single.

Here’s how the top 10 shakes out overall:

Dundee is the highest-ranked Scottish area, in fourth, with 57.7% of adults legally single (72,301 people) and solid scores for both affordability and going-out options. Lincoln completes the top five; 62.9% of its adults are legally single and a typical one-bed costs £7,944 per year, which helps it to a score of 60.98.

London isn’t the single-life capital

One of the clearest themes from the index is that London and the South East are far from guaranteed single-life sweet spots. While inner London boroughs like Camden and Islington do break into the top 10, much of the capital slides towards the bottom of the rankings once rent and crime are factored in.

Harrow is named the worst place in the UK to be single in 2026, with Redbridge and Hart just above it. Eight of the 10 lowest-scoring areas overall are in London or the South East, with high rents and relatively modest dating pools emerging as common pressure points; in Harrow, a one-bed at £16,500 a year swallows 43.9% of the local median wage.

What the ‘freedom index’ actually measures

Rather than simply counting how many people are single in each area, the study combines five elements and weights them to reflect different priorities for someone living alone. The dating pool (share of legally single adults) carries the greatest weight at 30%, followed by nightlife at 20%, affordability at 20%, dining and daytime venues at 15% and safety at 15%.

Affordability is calculated as the share of the local median annual salary that would be spent renting a one-bed property for a year, with lower ratios scoring higher. Dining and daytime options are based on the number of restaurants, cafés, takeaways, and hotels per 10,000 adults, while nightlife is based on pubs, bars, and nightclubs on the same per-capita basis. Safety is measured by recorded crimes per 1,000 people, with lower rates yielding higher scores.

To bring everything into a single ranking, each local authority is scored out of 10 on each metric, and then standardised using min–max normalisation, before being combined into a final score out of 100. The analysis draws on ONS Census 2021 data, ONS earnings figures, ONS regional rental prices, the Food Standards Agency establishment register and crime data from Police.uk.

Single and thinking of moving?

Beyond the league table itself, the findings challenge the easy assumption that you need to be in London to enjoy a full single life. With smaller cities such as Norwich, Liverpool, Lincoln and Dundee performing strongly across affordability and social infrastructure, and rural areas like Powys and Gwynedd also ranking highly, the data suggests single people may get more for their money outside the South East.

The full list of 346 authorities is available on request, but the overall pattern is clear: if you value a big dating pool, realistic rents and plenty of places to go out, it might be time to look a little further up the map.