People in Watford and Hertsmere are among the happiest in the UK, according to a new survey from the Office for National Statistics.

The annual ONS survey, which covers the 12 months to the end of March, asked people aged 16 and over across the UK to rate four areas of their personal well-being.

Three of the areas - their happiness, life satisfaction and sense of the things they do in life being worthwhile - are ranked on a scale from zero to 10 with 10being the highest.

The average happiness score for respondents in Watford was 8.02 and 7.74 for Hertfordshire and 7.84 for Hertsmere, some of the highest scores in the UK.

This compared to an average UK score of 7.52.

Overall, 88% of people in Watford ranked their happiness between seven and ten, meaning either high or very high, compared to 75.4% in the UK.

The happiest place in the UK this year was in Rushmoor in Hampshire.

Since the survey began in 2011-12 happiness in the UK has been increasing year-on-year but has slowed in recent years.

People in Watford have also been reporting higher levels of happiness as the years go by.

The levels of happiness this year were the highest since the survey began.

There were similarly positive results this year for the feeling of being worthwhile and life satisfaction, both of which were above the national average.

Silvia Manclossi, head of the quality of life team at the ONS said: "An important part of our work is looking beyond the economic health of the country to how its people are faring and inequalities in society.

“Today, for the first time, we have identified how factors such as health, access to services and crime levels may affect how people rate their well-being in different parts of the UK.

“This can help local authorities and other organisations to better understand where services could be targeted to help improve the well-being of people in their area.”

A fourth question in the survey asks respondents to rank how anxious they felt on the previous day, with zero being 'not at all anxious' and ten being 'completely anxious'.

The population in Watford appears to have become more stressed over the last year, with anxiety levels creeping up to 2.41 - although this is still below the UK average.

The region coming out top in the well-being survey this year was Northern Ireland, which reported the lowest levels of anxiety and the highest levels of happiness, satisfaction and feelings of worthiness of any UK region for two years running.

The worst performing region across the board was London, while people in Wales also report lower than average satisfaction with their lives than the other nations of the UK.