Bath has been named as the UK’s ‘most progressive’ city for its residents’ forward-looking approach in areas ranging from recycling to voting.
Bathonians also helped their city gain top spot in the 50-strong league table due to their taste for vegan and vegetarian food and ownership of environmentally friendly cars.
The rankings were based on a survey by Banknote, the US financial services group that also operates in the UK.
It analysed seven factors – a city’s Google search trends, gender pay gap, recycling rates, voter turnout, number of vegan and vegetarian restaurants, number of ultra-low emission vehicles and percentage of women in its local government – awarding points out of five for each and giving each city an overall score out of 35.
Bath leapt into the number one place in this year’s table from third place last time with a score of 25.4, narrowing beat Bristol by 0.2 points.
Last year’s winning city Oxford slipped down the rankings, as did Brighton and Hove – a city often viewed as a bastion of green living.
Bath scored highly for its recycling rates and voter turnout – which were the best among the 50 cities in the table – but was behind Bristol and third-placed Leicester for its gender pay gap figures and Bath & North East Somerset Council’s employment of women.
It also had one of the best scores for its search trends – the Banknote survey looked for words and terms such as LGBT, fair trade, volunteering, climate change, feminism, protest, sustainability, charity, human rights and politics as proof of a progressive city.
Banknote said the survey was designed to gauge how the progressive mindsets of a city’s inhabitants shape daily life, giving a ‘wokeness’ score for each by using key data points relating to social and environmental issues.
This ‘wokeness’ was defined not only by its recognition of the issues, but how the city addresses them and enables positive change, it said.
“Whether it’s a green-minded commitment to recycling, a strong voter turnout, or ensuring that the ethnic diversity of the city is represented in local government, these cities have not just woken up to their duty to encourage a socially aware community, but they are staying woke by ensuring continued progress,” Banknote said.
“The wokeness of a city can be monitored not only by its politics, but also through the kinds of shops, services and facilities that exist; the kinds of events that take place; the way the area is designed; and the way the community engages with these issues.”
Top photo courtesy of Visit Bath
