The ‘happy living’ survey, put out by the Auckland-based ASB bank, put Dunedin well ahead of any other city, scoring 650 points out of a possible 800, almost 100 ahead of the Rodney District, north of Auckland, with Wellington coming home in 3^rd. The other main centres Christchurch, Hamilton and Auckland ranked 7^th, 8^th and 11^th respectively.

The survey looked at a range of factors including a sense of neighbourhood community, feelings of trust, community support, contact with neighbours, sense of pride, and having a culturally rich and diverse arts scene.

Dunedin scored particularly strongly in areas such as availability of support, lack of loneliness, trust, culture and arts, and pride in how the city looks.

Waitakere City languished at the bottom of the survey in 12^th with a mere 120 points, just five adrift of neighbour Auckland City in 11^th. The greater Auckland area did not fare well with North Shore and Manukau cities in 9^th and 10^th respectively. The remaining rankings were taken by Porirua 4^th, Hutt City 5^th and Tauranga 6^th.

The survey used data from the current Quality of Life Survey which examined people’s perceptions of their own wellbeing.