A New Year and A New You: Where in England Do You Have the Best Chance to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

From exercising to relaxing more, Care.com discovers where in England is the easiest to keep your resolutions – and where is the hardest!

We’ve all been there: the last of the Christmas leftovers has been devoured and rolling seems like the only possible means of travel. But on the horizon, there is the shiny promise of a fresh start – it’s the first day of 2019!  Full of resolutions and good intentions, the new year looms like the first day of the rest of our lives.

However, it is not long before this year feels just like the last and all our optimistic goals have gone out the window in a haze of exasperated defeat and sheer forgetfulness.

But we shouldn’t feel too bad as it might not be entirely our own fault. It turns out that where we live can have a big effect on how well we stick to our New Year’s resolutions.

With this in mind, Care.com decided to investigate and find out which city in England makes it the easiest for you to succeed in your New Year’s resolutions and which makes it the hardest. Our analysts ranked the local authorities in England to show where you have the greatest chance of sticking to the four most popular New Year’s resolutions:

• Eating more healthily
• Exercising more
• Relaxing more
• Quitting smoking

Where is the best place to keep your resolutions?

Congratulations to the residents of Wokingham, Berkshire! You have the best shot at keeping your New Year’s resolutions out of everywhere in England. Ranking in first place overall, the people of Wokingham also come in first for eating more healthily and quitting smoking. Closely followed are Rutland and Herefordshire.

The best resolution? Don’t get stressed by your resolutions!

And where is it hardest to keep your resolutions? Blackpool does the worst job of helping its citizens stick to their promises of the New Year. Also at the bottom of the list are Sandwell and Stoke-on-Trent.

If you live in a bad area for keeping new year’s resolutions, don’t become disheartened as it might not be such a bad thing. It may provide the extra motivation you need… or be a good excuse to not try it at all.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year 2019 from Care.com!

Best Places in England to keep your New Year’s Resolutions

Local Authority	OVERALL Rank	Eat more healthily	Exercise more	Relax More	Stop smoking
Wokingham	1	1	13	9	1
Rutland	2	14	27	2	3
Herefordshire	3	2	29	8	15
North Somerset	4	13	7	41	10
Devon	5	3	5	23	28
Buckinghamshire	6	16	22	33	4
Oxfordshire	7	7	12	43	7
York	8	64	2	50	2
South Gloucestershire	9	19	11	26	5
Dorset	10	4	26	35	13
West Sussex	11	24	21	1	22
Poole	12	30	4	12	31
Surrey	13	12	14	69	9
Bristol	14	32	3	91	10
Isle of Wight	15	9	40	3	40
West Berkshire	16	33	6	30	24
Windsor and Maidenhead	17	23	19	55	12
Hampshire	18	22	17	6	47
Suffolk	19	21	43	4	37
Somerset	20	5	31	28	42
Cornwall	21	11	38	7	55
Bracknell Forest	22	31	19	27	25
Cambridgeshire	23	17	8	67	50
East Sussex	24	18	50	9	40
Shropshire	25	6	40	48	38
Wiltshire	26	8	23	60	38
Norfolk	27	25	37	13	34
Hertfordshire	28	43	33	21	19
Brighton and Hove	29	26	1	70	100
Bath and North East Somerset	30	15	9	98	27
East Riding of Yorkshire	31	73	48	20	8
Leicestershire	32	33	61	14	14
Northumberland	33	35	51	17	23
Gloucestershire	34	10	32	66	43
Bournemouth	35	41	36	15	34
Cheshire West and Chester	36	60	24	47	19
Wirral	37	20	35	16	69
Solihull	38	44	86	29	5
Warwickshire	39	47	60	19	18
Cumbria	40	42	25	61	50
Essex	41	49	55	17	34
Stockport	42	52	10	77	43
North Yorkshire	43	29	17	63	66
Central Bedfordshire	44	38	28	46	68
Trafford	45	70	46	51	19
Cheshire East	46	28	15	75	79
Torbay	47	56	45	43	55
Kent	48	35	34	49	76
Nottinghamshire	49	39	57	36	61
Milton Keynes	50	54	84	11	25
Worcestershire	51	45	59	45	54
Durham	52	63	44	62	43
Warrington	53	77	53	78	17
Reading	54	92	16	82	30
Derbyshire	55	50	47	73	61
Portsmouth	55	65	39	58	63
Bedford	57	27	72	37	74
Swindon	58	58	30	34	90
Staffordshire	59	51	76	68	28
Lincolnshire	60	48	65	25	76
Plymouth	61	59	54	5	103
North Tyneside	62	37	66	56	80
Sefton	63	72	79	87	16
Stockton-on-Tees	64	62	85	52	58
Peterborough	65	52	69	42	93
Halton	66	75	88	39	58
Newcastle upon Tyne	67	85	42	104	63
Redcar and Cleveland	68	86	70	65	58
Northamptonshire	69	67	87	57	69
Southampton	70	82	52	71	91
Greater London	71	69	49	116	53
Southend-on-Sea	72	76	62	53	100
Darlington	73	108	70	86	47
Lancashire	74	98	64	100	55
Gateshead	75	78	81	76	80
Leeds	76	111	58	54	85
Birmingham	77	106	90	72	31
Liverpool	78	91	73	95	65
Medway	79	71	75	74	93
Luton	80	107	109	31	43
Doncaster	81	55	56	92	111
Dudley	82	57	108	110	31
Coventry	83	79	106	59	69
Telford and Wrekin	84	61	115	22	80
North Lincolnshire	85	40	94	32	114
St. Helens	86	65	111	78	72
Thurrock	87	88	100	38	96
Sheffield	88	100	74	94	87
Wakefield	89	90	101	40	99
Derby	90	68	83	88	106
Wigan	91	109	89	89	66
North East Lincolnshire	92	80	80	64	113
Bury	93	102	77	115	76
Blackburn with Darwen	94	82	112	85	85
Kirklees	95	95	98	96	88
Calderdale	96	99	81	109	88
Knowsley	97	46	105	101	111
Rotherham	98	81	114	97	74
Middlesbrough	99	87	103	81	105
Barnsley	100	103	91	90	102
Wolverhampton	101	84	116	111	47
South Tyneside	102	93	96	93	103
Walsall	103	105	113	107	50
Bradford	104	89	99	99	106
Nottingham	105	104	63	113	110
Oldham	106	110	104	114	83
Sunderland	107	74	92	84	118
Tameside	108	114	93	108	93
Bolton	109	101	110	118	72
Slough	110	94	117	106	83
Hartlepool	111	117	95	83	109
Rochdale	112	97	102	117	98
Leicester	113	113	107	105	96
Kingston upon Hull	114	118	78	24	119
Manchester	115	116	68	103	116
Salford	116	111	67	119	115
Stoke-on-Trent	117	96	118	112	106
Sandwell	118	115	119	102	91
Blackpool	119	119	97	80	117

Numbers in the table reflect the local authority’s performance in each category (1 is best, 119 is worst).

Methodology

The data analysis compares all local authorities in England in terms of their conditions to keep four popular New Year’s resolutions: “Eat more healthily”, “Exercise more”, “Relax more” and “Stop smoking”.

• “Eat more healthily” includes the proportion of the adult population meeting the recommended 5 portions of fruit and vegetables (‘5-a-day’) on a usual day (source: Public Health England based on Active Lives, Sport England, year: 2016/17) and the density of fastfood outlets (source: Public Health England, Risk Factors Intelligence based on PointX, year: 2014). The more people eating ‘5-a-day’ and the less fast food available, the easier it is to stick with a healthy diet. 
• “Exercise more” includes the percentage of adults that meet CMO recommendations for physical activity (source: Public Health England, based on Active Lives, Sport England, year: 2016/17) and the percentage of people walking or cycling at least once per week (source: Walking and cycling statistics by the Department for Transport, based on the National Travel Survey and the Active Lives Survey, year: 2017).
• “Relax more / reduce stress” refers to the average annual number of hours of sunshine (source: Met Office, years: 1981 to 2010;  data refer to the closest weather station), the percentage of the population exposed to road, rail and air transport noise of 65dB(A) or more during the daytime (source: Public Health England based on DEFRA, year: 2011) and the Estimates of Happiness (source: Office for National Statistics based on the Annual Population Survey Personal Well-being, year: 2017/18).
• “Stop smoking” is based on the current prevalence of smoking among adults (source: Public Health England, based on the Annual Population Survey).

Metrics within the four categories were normalized on a scale of 0 to 100. The final score was created by applying 25% weight to each of the four categories. The analysis was only descriptive. The lower a local authority’s ranking, the better it is.