INSURANCE UK TODAY: BEST CITY TO BE YOUNG.

Transcription

1 INSURANCE UK TODAY: BEST CITY TO BE YOUNG. A new report looking at the factors shaping the quality of life for young adults in the UK s 20 most populous cities. The report also helps to explain the different insurance cover available to young adults to help protect themselves, their home, their possessions and their lifestyle. EVERY DAY MATTERS.

2 02 CONTENTS CONTENTS 1.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 2. INTRODUCTION 5 3. METHODOLOGY AND PARAMETERS OF THE RESEARCH 5 4. REPORT FINDINGS 9 5. HOUSING WORKING CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT AND LOCAL ENVIRONMENT COST OF LIVING AND SAVING FOR THE FUTURE POSSESSIONS AND THEIR PROTECTION CONCLUSIONS 14

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Deciding where to live after completing education is one of the most important decisions that young adults have to make. While some choose to remain in the area they were raised, went to college or university, many will move to different regions, towns or cities to pursue better lifestyles and new job opportunities. There are different factors which sway young adults today in making this choice, but as Legal & General s UK Today: Best City to be Young Report shows, the bigger cities which are traditionally thought of as offering the best opportunities haven t necessarily come out on top for overall quality of life. In fact, Legal & General s UK Today: Best City to be Young Report, which ranks the UK s 20 most populous cities by the quality of life that 18 to 30 year olds say are important to them, reveals that Cardiff is the number one city for young adults on this basis. Based on this criteria, Coventry is ranked in second place, and Newcastle then comes third. Surprisingly, the UK s bigger, and often thought of as cities that young adults would wish to live, such as London, Birmingham and Manchester are ranked much lower and are in 15th, 14th and 16th places respectively. Jointly at the bottom of the table for offering young adults a good quality of life are Wakefield and Glasgow, both in 20th place. Cardiff sits in the top spot due to its high scores in six of the most important criteria: Job satisfaction: 70% of respondents from Cardiff said they enjoy their current job (or if unemployed, most recent job) ranking 2nd out of the 20 cities in this study. Job opportunities: only 3% of respondents from the Welsh capital are unemployed which ranked 2nd out of the 20 cities. It compares to an average of 5% of workers being unemployed across the 20 cities featured in this study. Ability to save money: respondents living in Cardiff said they save on average each month, the 2nd highest of the 20 cities surveyed. Wages: respondents from Cardiff earn, on average, 21,585 per year, which is slightly above the national average of 21,326 and is the 4th highest out of the 20 cities in this study. Work-life balance: 70% of respondents in Cardiff said they are happy with their work-life balance, the 4th highest in the country. The table below reveals where each of the largest 20 UK cities ranked for the overall quality of life that they offer 18 to 30 year olds. However, even the cities ranked in the second half of the table have some positive factors for young adults. Joint bottom of the table Wakefield has the lowest crime rates of the 20 cities, and 15th place London offers the highest average annual wages at 27,500. Bradford, which is ranked in 17th place overall has the lowest rental rates of the 20 cities, and Nottingham, in 18th place overall, is ranked third top for cost of living. Full list of the top 20 cities ranking in Quality of Life Index Rank City Rank City 1 Cardiff 11 Glasgow 2 Coventry 12 Sunderland 3 Newcastle 13 Hull 4 Liverpool 14 Birmingham 5 Edinburgh 15 London 6 Leicester 16 Manchester 7 Brighton 17 Bradford 8 Bristol 18 Nottingham 9 Belfast 20 Sheffield 10 Leeds 20 Wakefield Edinburgh is the best performing major city after Cardiff, ranked in 5th place overall. However it is the cultural capital of the 20 cities featured in this study, ranking top for culture and entertainment as well as for the local environment and job opportunities. Legal & General s UK Today: Best City to be Young Report also reveals the extent to which technology and transport has a positive impact on 18 to 30 year olds overall quality of life. Phones, (59%) were identified by the majority of respondents as the possession that has the biggest positive impact on their quality of life. This is then followed by laptops/ tablets, (56%) and cars, (45%). However, despite possessions being so important, it appears from the findings that many young adults are not taking steps to protect their belongings should they be lost, broken or stolen. Only just over a quarter, (27%) have phone insurance, only 1 in 10, (11%) have insurance cover for their laptop or tablet and just 3% have cover insurance in place to help provide an income, if they should be sick, have an accident or become unemployed and so unable to work.

4 04 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CONT. There is a lot to think about when starting out on your own, whether you re moving to a new city or staying where you have lived for a while. Taking out insurance cover can often fall to the bottom of the to-do list, as it may be thought of as complicated or time-consuming to some young adults. To help, Legal & General has developed an Interactive House which has been designed to help improve customers understanding of the insurance terms used and the home insurance cover available to help protect their home and possessions. By moving through the 3D house and clicking on the special icons displayed in the various rooms, details will appear and so helps to check that they have adequate cover in place. The Interactive House can be accessed at: com/insurance/customer-portal/ interactive-house The purpose of our UK Today: Best City to be Young Report is to provide insight into what makes a city a great place for young adults to live in, today. There are many factors to consider when it comes to what shapes the quality of life for 18 to 30 year olds, which include local job opportunities, the culture and entertainment available, as well as local crime rates and the cost of living. Asking young adults what factors are important to them has helped to define, for the first time, the overall quality of life a city has to offer its younger residents. It was a surprise to us to establish that the Welsh capital, Cardiff, tops the ranking by being the city that offers the overall best quality of life for young people today. I think like many others, we were expecting London to be the most attractive to young adults today but things are obviously changing. Our research has revealed that young people are looking for cities that can offer them the balance of good job opportunities, decent wages but also the ability to put money aside each month - which is a great responsible attitude and approach for them to have these days. By asking 18 to 30 year olds directly what they believe has the most impact on their quality of life, we are able to get a true insight into their lives and how these factors influence the decisions they make. These are often the crucial years in which important career and lifestyle decisions are made, which then lay the foundations for their future. We carried out the research to get insight into the elements of their lifestyle they value and their approach to protecting it, unfortunately any protection for their home, possessions or even themselves which appear key to that Lifestyle do not seem to be part of their plans. With less than one in ten, (8%) saying that having insurance was a factor that they considered important in providing them with a quality life, it s clear we have some work to do so they appreciate the benefits and peace of mind that having insurance cover in place is able to give them - so they are able to enjoy their life! Mike Lawler, Director for Legal & General s general insurance business. Legal & General is extremely grateful to Dr Esmee Hanna who has worked with us to compile and analyse the data to produce the UK Today: Best City to be Young Report and these incredibly useful findings. As a responsible insurer, Legal & General hopes that this Report will help raise awareness with young people that they should consider the value and benefits that insurance offers. Dr. Esmee Hanna Researcher and author of UK Today: Best City to be Young Report Dr Esmée Hanna is a freelance research consultant. She graduated from the University of Leeds with a PhD in Sociology in 2012, having previously studied at Warwick University. Her academic career has seen her teaching undergraduate students at both Leeds University and the Open University. Dr Hanna has also worked on a variety of research projects, most notably as a research fellow for Timescapes at the University of Leeds, where she worked on Young lives and times which was a project exploring the experiences of young fathers over time.

5 5 INTRODUCTION This Report, prepared for Legal & General explores the issue of quality of life for young adults in the United Kingdom. Quality of life has long been used as an indicator of people s wellbeing and happiness, and can be defined as follows; "Quality of life is a concept that reflects a person's desired conditions of living related to eight core dimensions of one's life: emotional well-being, interpersonal relationships, material well-being, personal development, physical well-being, self-determination, social inclusion, and rights." (Schalock, 2000: p.121 cited in Quality of life, (QOL) therefore is distinct from its purely economic relative of standard of living, which is a means of assessing people s lives by solely fiscal/economic indicators. Quality of life is therefore a more complex measure than standard of living in that it s also trying to assess how people s lives are comprised, and what positive attributes they feel their lives are enhanced by in order for them to experience a well -rounded social existence. A high quality of life may therefore include being financially comfortable via a gainful and fulfilling work-life, able to meet material needs; housing, food, bills, transport, as well as enjoy disposable income for leisure activities; having the ability to experience a good social life and be part of the community; develop oneself with new experiences or culturally enhancing activities, and feel safe and well. Quality of life surveys have traditionally been focused on an older cohort (married couple/families), and key indicators used to comprise such life-satisfaction surveys are based around things such as divorce rates, safety, infrastructure, commuting and schools. The age cohort under investigation will then dictate the type of information that will inform the quality of life, for example divorce rates and quality of schooling may have less of an impact on quality of life for those in the age grouping than it would for families in their late 30s/early 40s. QOL surveys are often framed by locations, for example the best places to live 1 ; the happiest places to live 2 and are useful in that regard for making geographical comparisons. METHODOLOGY AND PARAMETERS OF THE RESEARCH The research explores the quality of life of young adults within the United Kingdom. So to achieve this, the age range is taken to be years olds. In order to assess where in the UK offers this age group the best quality of life, a number of major cities were explored and ultimately ranked by various criteria to give an overall picture of quality of life. 1 For example a survey by Halifax explores the most desirable places to live for good quality of life: england For example see Rightmove survey about the Happiest places to live in the UK: news/harrogate- happy- at- home- index- 2013

6 6 SELECTION OF CITIES: For this research the 20 largest cities in the UK were selected. The size of population within the cities is therefore the key criteria for their inclusion. This option is particularly beneficial as it ensures coverage of Scotland (Glasgow, Edinburgh), Wales (Cardiff) and Northern Ireland (Belfast) with the remaining 16 cities being in England; all four nations are represented. The top 20 cities and their respective population sizes, are as follows: 1. London 7.2 Million 2. Birmingham Leeds Glasgow Sheffield Bradford Edinburgh Liverpool Manchester Bristol Wakefield Cardiff Coventry Nottingham Leicester Sunderland Belfast Newcastle upon Tyne Brighton Hull Source:

7 7 DATA: As detailed within the introduction to this report, quality of life is therefore a measure which combines both objective and subjective indicators as some aspects of quality of life would be unable to be assessed via objective methods, for example work life balance, or feelings about the environment in which people live in. This research then used a combination of two approaches to look at various aspects of the lives of year olds, such as economic aspects, housing, jobs and employment, leisure and environment as well as crime and take up of insurance to protect material goods. These indicators were explored using a mixture of desk research and a consumer survey, enabling the mix of objective and subjective aspects to be fully considered. The following topics were analysed via desk research: Local Crime figures Average Wages Average Rental Rates Average House prices Unemployment figures The consumer survey was based on a sample of young adults and sought the views of 2,117 randomly selected respondents aged between 18 and 30, with an equal proportion residing in each of the 20 cities listed above. The survey was carried out online. The gender split of the sample was 43% male and 57% female, and 72% of the sample was employed. The consumer research covered more subjective or specific aspects pertaining to quality of life such as: Average money saved each month Take up of insurance Job satisfaction Work/ Life balance Cost of maintaining a home (spend on essential living costs per month) Culture and entertainment The local environment Average age of first house purchase Proportion who are renting their homes Importance of specific possessions The consumer research was also used as an important means of identifying which aspects young adults found most important to their quality of life; by listening to the age group in question we were able to get a clear position on the things that impact most on quality of life for this demographic. From this weighting we were able to identify which elements we would use to assess and rank the quality

8 8 of life within the 20 cities the research was reviewing. The 10 criteria identified by the consumer research and then used to rank the cities are as follows: 1. Cost of living 2. A job I enjoy 3. A good work life balance 4. Good job opportunities where I live 5. The ability to save 6. Good wages 7. Low crime 8. Good choice of culture and entertainment 9. A nice environment 10. Reasonable rates for renting a home Cost of living was the biggest parameter that young adults saw as affecting their quality of life. This perhaps reflects broader concerns about living standards during the current economic climate. For example, the most recent research from Legal & General s Job Security Index 3, which has been tracking UK working adults confidence in their job security quarterly since January 2012, shows that a fifth of all workers are currently worrying about how they will maintain their current standard of living over the next three months. This demonstrates the wider societal concerns about the cost of living and ability to maintain current standards and so is perhaps indicative of the wider economic picture of rising living costs that young adults then rate this factor as a major influence on their quality of life. For the demographic under review, an aspect of significant note is perhaps how important the ability to save is to young adults, with 47% of the sample stating that being able to save positively impacts their quality of life. Conversely, culture and entertainment is a factor that may have been predicted as being of more importance to young adults than it actually was in the consumer survey. Similarly, rental rates are proportionately more likely to affect the younger population, as they re more likely to be renting than the family demographic. This is especially true given the current difficulties for first time buyers and the need for large deposits. Yet young adults are seemingly less concerned about rental rates as a standalone issue, and more concerned with the overall cost of living. These examples demonstrate the importance of asking young adults what matters to them, as this enables the research to more accurately reflect the factors that are really important to their quality of life. Using the findings from the desk research and consumer survey, and the structure provided by these criteria, each city was given a score for its performance on each criteria, and the total points for the ten criteria was then combined to produce the overall Index of Quality of Life within the top 20 cities. 3 The Legal & General Job Security Index is based on research carried out for Legal & General by YouGov, in which the opinions of representative adults in employment (including self- employment) within the UK have been gathered. For further details of the latest Job Security index findings (July 2013) regarding the low confidence of UK workers in their job security please see: centre/press- releases/2013/group- news- release html

9 9 REPORT FINDINGS WHICH IS THE BEST CITY FOR QUALITY OF LIFE FOR YOUNG ADULTS? Based on a ranking of the top 20 UK cities, of the 10 key criteria that young adults said were important to them in ensuring that they have a good quality of life, Legal & General s UK Today: Best City to be Young Report has established that the city that offers the best quality of life for young adults is Cardiff. The city offering the lowest quality of life is Wakefield. Cardiff performs consistently well, scoring highly for offering good job opportunities, enjoyable jobs, a good work- life balance, wages and ability to save. These were all things that the consumer survey of those aged between said was of greatest significance to them. The factors for quality of life where Cardiff did not perform so well were affordable rentals and cost of living. This suggests that living in Cardiff comes at a cost, although if wages and job opportunities are good, this may counterbalance the cost element somewhat. Wakefield by contrast consistently scores low across the key criteria, performing particularly badly for culture and entertainment, local environment, wages, work-life balance and cost of living. Full list of the top 20 cities ranking in the Quality of Life Index: 1. Cardiff 2. Coventry 3. Newcastle 4. Liverpool 5. Edinburgh 6. Leicester 7. Brighton 8. Bristol 9. Belfast 10. Leeds and Glasgow 12. Sunderland 13. Hull 14. Birmingham 15. London 16. Manchester 17. Bradford 18. Nottingham 20. Wakefield and Sheffield

10 10 The top three cities are geographically spread across the UK, and the size of the city doesn t appear to hold significant weight over quality of life. For example, Cardiff is 12 th largest UK city and is best for quality of life for young adults, whereas Wakefield is the 11 th largest UK city and is ranked lowest for quality of life. Of the largest UK cities, the highest ranked of the top 5 largest cities are Glasgow and Leeds which came joint 10th in the ranking for quality of life. In terms of rating their Quality of Life, 46% of people in Cardiff rated their quality of life as being a score of 10, 9, or 8 out of ten i.e. well above average, which is the highest percentage for these top 3 scores of all the cities explored. This confirms the findings, in that almost half of young adults surveyed who live in Cardiff think their quality of life is well above average. However, Wakefield s score is by no means the lowest in terms of peoples ratings of their own quality of life, so perceptions of quality of life can and do vary across cities. UNDERSTANDING YOUNG ADULTS: OTHER FINDINGS OF NOTE As well as ranking the UK cities, the process of data generation for this research has highlighted a number of very interesting findings about young adults, such as what they value, how they live and what matters to them and influences their lives. This section will outline some of the major correlations and headline findings of the research, exploring what matters to year olds living in the UK s Top 20 cities. HOUSING 44% of the sample surveyed rent their homes, with more young adults living with their family (29%) than owning their own homes (27%). Given the average price of buying a house in the top 20 UK cities explored within this research is 167, 477, coupled with the need now for larger deposits and mortgages being more difficult to attain, it s unsurprising that most young adults are renting rather than buying. For those young adults surveyed who have bought their own homes, the average age at which they do purchase is strongly connected to the house prices of the area in which they re buying. For example, the average age of house buying for those who own houses is highest in London at 26 years and 2 months, and lowest in Hull at 22 years and 3 three months, which correlates to the cities with the highest and lowest house prices which are London and Hull, respectively. Areas where houses are cheaper do see people buying sooner than those where the prices are nearer or above the average for the UK. For those who currently rent their homes the average age at which they think they ll buy a house is 30 years and 2 months, whereas those who don t pay rent i.e. living rent free within their parents homes, think they ll buy at aged 28 years and 2 months. So we can identify a clear correlation between rent paid and the perceived ability to purchase demonstrated by their age predictions. These perceived ages for being able to buy are also a lot higher than when young adults do actually buy houses, which for the top 20 cities is on average aged 24 years and 9 months. So some 5 years and 3 months sooner than those paying rent think they ll be able/wanting to buy. The City with the highest proportion of year olds owning their own homes is Leeds, with 35% saying that they re home owners. The city with the lowest proportion of young homeowners is Liverpool, with only 17%, so only half of the number of homeowners in this age group as Leeds. Edinburgh is the city that has the highest proportion of people renting with 56%, and the lowest rental levels can be found in Leicester with only 34% renting their homes. London has the highest number of young adults living at home but not paying rent with 28% doing that, compared to the lowest, which is only 12% in Cardiff. This may be due to the high costs of living in London, which sees young adults being forced to remain in the family home due to high rental rates in the capital.

11 11 For those renting the highest average monthly rents are to be found in London at 2,658 per calendar month, and the lowest rents are in Bradford, some 2,179 less per month than those in London, at 479 per calendar month. The average London rent is more per month than the average London wage i.e. average London wage is 27,500 before tax and deductions, so divided by 12= 2,291, so with deductions the amount taken home would be (considerably) less. Whereas for the lowest rents in Bradford, average wages of 17, 349, divided by 12= 1,445 (before deductions), which would make average rent approximately 1/3 of average wage, so is much more affordable. The research found that there s quite an even match between average rents and average wages, in that higher wages correlate to higher rents. The average rent for the top 20 UK cities is 819 per calendar month which is comparable to the average UK rent which the HomeLet rental index for June has at 811 per calendar month. Despite the cost of rent, renting remains the most popular housing option for the year old age group. WORKING The consumer survey found that an enjoyable job and a good work life balance was of great significance to this demographic, so work is a key influence on the quality of life for young adults. Some of the top 20 UK cities are better at providing good work life than others. Unemployment figures for the top 20 UK cities sees a picture in which the North and Midlands are all above average for unemployment and the South fairing much better. This is indicative of the UK wide picture of unemployment. The UK average unemployment rate is currently running at 3.8%, whereas the average unemployment rate for top 20 UK cities is higher at 5.3%. For job satisfaction and a good work life balance the research found that Leicester is the city which offers both of these, with 73% stating they have high job satisfaction and 74% believing they have a have a good work life balance. The high job satisfaction and work life balance in Leicester may indicate that happiness with a job is a key factor in feeling a strong sense of work life balance, in that enjoying your job may help your broader sense of wellbeing and lower levels of work related stress. Leicester however doesn t have the highest wages, so we cannot see an obvious correlation between higher wages and a strong sense of job satisfaction. London offers the highest wages, with those in Hull being the lowest. The UK average wage is 21,326, with the average of the top 20 UK Cities being lower than this at 19,892. CULTURE, ENTERTAINMENT AND LOCAL ENVIRONMENT Surprisingly, culture and entertainment is not seen as a highly significant factor for young adults in determining their quality of life, with other economic and work based factors holding greater sway for them. The city offering the best culture and entertainment was found from the consumer survey to be Edinburgh, with 75% agreeing that the city had good culture and entertainment, whereas the lowest scoring city in this category, Coventry only had 42%. There is a large difference between these two cities of some 33%, showing how much culture and entertainment varies from city to city. London surprisingly comes out quite low on culture and entertainment with only 52% thinking it offered what they wanted in terms of culture and entertainment opportunities, and was significantly lower than the other largest cities such as Birmingham with 57%, Leeds 63%, Glasgow 62%, and Sheffield 58%. Only Coventry, Wakefield and Bradford performed worse on culture and entertainment than London with scores of 42%, 49% and 50% respectively. Given the leisure spend is so high in

12 12 London the culture and entertainment score for London is further surprising, though may perhaps reflect an issue of value for money within the capital. As well as offering a strong contribution of culture and entertainment, Edinburgh also scored top for a positive local environment, of being an aesthetically pleasing place to live, and offering good outside space. 73% agreed that Edinburgh is environmentally pleasing, compared to the lowest scoring city for environmental factors, Birmingham, which scored only 51% for environmental factors. While a pleasant city is good for people s feelings of well-being and positivity, environmental factors also seem to correlate with other features. For example, there appears to be a link between high unemployment and poor perception of the local environment in cities and vice versa. The top cities for environmental factors are Edinburgh (73%) and then Brighton (71%). Edinburgh then also has the lowest ranking for unemployment with a rate of just 3.3% with Brighton being the 3 rd lowest for unemployment (only 0.2% behind Edinburgh at 3.5%). The lowest scoring cities for environment are Birmingham (51%), and then Wakefield (52%), and Birmingham is the city with the highest rate of unemployment at 8.6% Wakefield however has an average level of unemployment for the Top 20 UK cities at 5.3%, but unemployment in Wakefield is 1.5% higher than the UK average. So there does seem to be a link between environment and unemployment, exemplified by the extremes of those top and bottom in these two aspects. COST OF LIVING AND SAVING FOR THE FUTURE Cost of living and being able to save were seen as highly important aspects to year olds. A reasonable cost of living and the ability to save being seen as features that enable a good quality of life. The prominence of such economic criteria may be in part a reflection of the current socioeconomic climate, which has been shaped by recession and austerity for several years now. Money is therefore important to young adults. London perhaps unsurprisingly has the highest cost of living of the top 20 UK cities, with young adults reporting their average monthly spend on essential living costs, rent/bills/food etc. as This is over 40% ( ) more than the lowest essential living spend for young adults in Belfast which is per month. The average spend on living costs for the top 20 cities is , meaning Londoners spend 25% more ( ) than the average each month. However London does also have the highest spend on leisure costs, which may again reflect the cost of living within the capital. The average amount spent on leisure per month in London is , compared to the lowest of Hull, which is just , a difference between the two is substantial with Londoners spending 41% more on leisure than those who live in Hull. The high cost of living in London doesn t however appear to be curtailing young adults spending on leisure. Young adults in Newcastle are the best savers in the top 20 cities, with the average monthly amount saved being , compared to Brighton where the average amount saved is only per month. Brighton does have high housing costs for both renting and buying which may account for the low level of saving, in that money may be tighter due to the high costs of living. However Brighton has a below average ranking of the 20 cities for spending on leisure so it s not that young adults are spending rather than saving in Brighton. Londoners do manage to save more than those in Brighton and as detailed above, living costs are extremely high in London. Only three cities have young adults who save in excess of 200 per month, Newcastle, Cardiff and Leeds. Only 8 cities having savers above the average for the top 20 Cities which is While young adults may only be able to save modest amounts, allowing for cost of living, leisure spend, all of the top 20 UK cities are showing saving activity among this demographic.

13 13 City Average amount saved each month by young adults Newcastle Cardiff Birmingham Liverpool Sunderland Leeds Glasgow Leicester London Coventry Edinburgh Bristol Wakefield Nottingham Bradford Manchester Sheffield Belfast Hull Brighton Table: Top 20 UK cities ranked by ability to save POSSESSIONS AND THEIR PROTECTION The top three possessions that contribute most to young adults quality of life are phones (59%), laptops/tablets (56%) and cars (45%). However putting cars aside due to the compulsory insurance requirements, only 27% of young adults have phone insurance, and only 11% have laptop/tablet insurance. Material items are then important to quality of life, and specifically technology is shown to be of key importance to young adults, yet many don t have specific insurance to cover what matters most to them. 18% of young adults have no insurance of any kind and 3% don t know what insurance they have. Nearly one in five, (19%) said that they have life insurance and 14% said that they have health insurance, which is perhaps surprising for this age group. This again, similar to the desire to save, perhaps indicates that young adults are thinking about their futures and taking steps to protect their future. Crime rates in local areas don t appear to impact on the level of insurance protection young adults have for their possessions. The research shows that London has the highest crime rate of the top 20 UK cities at 3,968 crimes during the month of June (2013), and Wakefield has the lowest at 472. However higher crime rates doesn t appear to have an impact on insurance take up. For example, young adults in London have less insurance than the young adults in Wakefield, which has significantly less crime. So crime rates may not necessarily be influencing people into taking out insurance to protect their possessions. Similarly having higher wages, so potentially the means to afford insurance cover doesn t see insurance take up increase, with cities with lower average wages having a higher take up of home contents insurance. For example, Hull has the lowest average wages at 15, 554 yet has a 47% take up of home contents insurance, which is 24% more with insurance than London whose average wages are 27,500.

14 14 CONCLUSIONS The research shows that Cardiff offers the best overall quality of life for year olds within the UK. Perhaps surprisingly, despite being the UK s largest city and traditionally the default big city for young adults to move to, London ranks 15th out of 20 cities examined by this research. The findings also show a poor performance for Yorkshire with the quality of life for Sheffield and Wakefield being the lowest for this age group. This research delves into what really matters to the age demographic, honing in on their specific cares and concerns, to develop a strong understanding of what young adults want in order to give them a good quality of life. Many different factors shape quality of life it s a multi-faceted concept, and the research approach has considered and negotiated this by the choice of methods used to examine and analyse the subject. The role of work, both satisfaction in a job, and the balance of work and leisure, has been identified as being a very significant factor for young adults in achieving that quality life. The broader social context of insecurity about employment, as evidenced by Legal & General s research findings in the Job Security Index and the availability of work is perhaps reflected in the precedence young adults give to their working lives. Finances are also undoubtedly significant to young adults across all the cities that have been explored. Whether it s in relation to affordability or in terms of ability to save, the findings show that the age group are very financially aware. Each of the top 20 UK cities has something different or special to offer young adults, which shows the diversity of the cities within the UK, such as Edinburgh offering years olds very high quality culture and entertainment, and Newcastle having the highest level of saving among young adults. However, it s Cardiff that has performed consistently well across the key categories that young adults said they looked for to have a good quality of life. With high rankings in job opportunities, job satisfaction, work life balance, wages and the ability to save, Cardiff offers today s young adults the things they want, to have the quality of life that they desire.

15 CONTACT US Call charges will vary. We may record and monitor calls. Legal & General is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Legal & General Insurance Limited. Registered address: One Coleman Street, London EC2R 5AA. Registered in England & Wales No September 2013