The Thriving Places Index (TPI), from the Centre for Thriving Places, shows how well places across the country are doing at creating the conditions for everyone to thrive. The 2024 data was launched at a webinar, along with a report into the Wellbeing Economy in Action – with stories of those working on the front line of a shift towards a wellbeing economy. Roger Higman was there.
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The Thriving Places Index (TPI) is a multi-variate index showing how well local areas in Britain are going against a range of wellbeing indicators. It brings together the very best existing data and evidence to help people understand and map the pathways to developing a thriving place where they live or work. Around the UK, local decision makers and communities are using this data to co-design policies and actions to make their areas better.
The 2024 data covers everything from the health of local people, through their education, levels of unemployment, to their carbon emissions and access to nature (see below). It also looks at how the quality of life varies between people in the area – by gender, ethinicity, age and sexual orientation. It looks at how cohesive a locality is and the extent to which people participate in local life.
You can view the data for the local authority area in which you live and compare it to other places in the UK – on a ranking from one to ten. I looked at Plymouth, where I live, and found that it scores slightly below average for local conditions and equality but slightly above average for sustainability. More interestingly, when I dived a little deeper, I discovered that it is a particularly bad place to live for work and the economy but very good for the human-environment connection. That’s probably because we live with the sea on one side and Dartmoor on the other!
For those that find the numbers a bit dry, you can also look at the indicators via some colourful maps.
Wellbeing Economy in Action, the accompanying report, that was produced with help from the Triodos Bank and Carnegie UK Trust, provides a fascinating insight into how people from Ayrshire to Essex have been using the data to drive change – including by creating indices of their own. It also has some useful advice on how citizens can use the Index to spark conversations about what would improve wellbeing locally.
As Liz Zeidler, Chief Executive of the Centre for Thriving Places, says:
“We urgently need to shift our focus to growing a more equitable and sustainable future for all. Yet governments, public services, communities and businesses are trying against the odds to deliver that change with the tools and thinking of the last century – when the priority was economic growth at all costs.
“Luckily, this shift is beginning to happen. Regional and local leaders across the UK are innovating with ways to invest resources, structure services and link up policy to produce better quality of life, less inequality, a cleaner environment and a radically fairer distribution of economic wealth. …Those policies and actions are coalescing around the idea of a ‘wellbeing economy’, helping to refocus local economies onto growing our collective capacity to thrive now and into the future”.
You can watch the recording of the Thriving Places 2024 launch here.
