Revealed: The 25 Most Creative UK Towns & Cities In 2019

Josh Ballard
6th July 2017

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Revealed: The 25 Most Creative UK Towns & Cities In 2019

6th July 2017

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Whether you’re an artist, musician, writer or designer, or if you just like surrounding yourself with creative types, where in the UK would suit you most?

This is the question that we asked just over two years ago in July 2017. With changes in the UK's creative industries happening all the time, we thought we'd take another look at the 25 most creative UK towns and cities in 2019.

So, we looked at the amount of creative jobs being advertised, how universities rank for creative subjects such as art and music, and the amount of music venues and art galleries.

Check out the results for yourself below.

Town/City	Creative Jobs Points	Creative University Points	Theatre & Concert Venue Points	Art Galleries Points	Total Points
1. Edinburgh	37	48	47	50	182
2. Brighton and Hove	40	38	48	48	174
3. Oxford	46	45	38	43	172
4. Norwich	39	33	49	49	170
5. Manchester	49	47	36	37	169
6. Glasgow	28	50	42	41	161
7. Bristol	45	34	44	34	157
8. York	38	44	24	41	147
9. London	48	41	30	27	146
10. Newcastle upon Tyne	41	21	38	43	143
11. Nottingham	43	49	25	25	142
12. Cambridge	50	42	46	1	139
13. Belfast	24	30	35	47	136
14. Liverpool	22	36	42	31	131
15. Plymouth	10	35	39	46	130
16. Ipswich	25	15	43	45	128
17. Aberdeen	9	40	45	33	127
18. Leicester	36	43	24	22	125
19. Birmingham	34	46	21	23	124
20. Reading	44	22	32	26	124
21. Swansea	8	37	42	36	123
22. Southampton	30	25	32	33	120
23. Leeds	42	39	16	22	119
24. Bournemouth	33	28	34	24	119
25. Cardiff	20	27	26	45	118

If you're interested in digging deeper into the data; here are the four individual tables and the associated rankings for each:

Creative Jobs

If you work in the creative sector, it's important that there are local jobs which support your talent. As such, we've taken a look at the number of creative positions currently available in each of the towns and cities.

Town/City	Creative Jobs	Per/10,000 People	Points
1. Cambridge	456	34.84	50
2. Manchester	1576	29.72	49
3. London	20,459	23.59	48
4. Oxford	297	17.65	46
5. Bristol	754	16.78	45
6. Reading	369	15.86	44
7. Nottingham	499	15.52	43
8. Leeds	1,088	14.06	42
9. Newcastle upon Tyne	389	13.28	41
10. Brighton and Hove	359	13.13	40
11. Norwich	173	12.24	39
12. York	239	11.55	38
13. Edinburgh	526	11.31	37
14. Leicester	386	11.27	36
15. Birmingham	1,200	10.80	34
16. Bournemouth	194	10.57	33
17. Southampton	225	8.87	30
18. Glasgow	506	8.39	28
19. Ipswich	109	8.17	25
20. Belfast	268	8.05	24
21. Liverpool	350	7.31	22
22. Cardiff	250	7.22	20
23. Plymouth	110	4.19	10
24. Aberdeen	76	3.86	9
25. Swansea	66	3.68	8

Creative University Score

Millennials are the future of the creative sector and there's a clear correlation between towns and cities where the local university offers great creative courses and the overall creative flair of the area. As such, we've taken the 'Creative University Score' for each location:

Town/City	Creative University Score	Points
1. Glasgow	365.35	50
2. Nottingham	361.2	49
3. Edinburgh	358.68	48
4. Manchester	358	47
5. Birmingham	356.95	46
6. Oxford	356.85	45
7. York	353	44
8. Leicester	349.4	43
9. Cambridge	349.15	42
10. London	345.33	41
11. Aberdeen	341.9	40
12. Leeds	341.46	39
13. Brighton and Hove	328.55	38
14. Swansea	326.3	37
15. Liverpool	325.31	36
16. Plymouth	313.8	35
17. Bristol	268.75	34
18. Norwich	268.1	33
19. Belfast	260.75	30
20. Bournemouth	256.15	28
21. Cardiff	254.95	27
22. Southampton	244.9	25
23. Reading	186.4	22
24. Newcastle upon Tyne	184.75	21
25. Ipswich	162.6	15

Theatre & Concert Venues

Drama and music are great ways for creatives to express themselves, so we thought it important to establish which towns and cities offer the most theatres and concert venues per 10,000 inhabitants:

Town/City	Theatre/Concert Venues	Per/10,000 People	Points
1. Norwich	12	0.85	49
2. Brighton and Hove	19	0.69	48
3. Edinburgh	29	0.62	47
4. Cambridge	8	0.61	46
5. Aberdeen	11	0.56	45
6. Bristol	24	0.53	44
7. Ipswich	7	0.52	43
8. Glasgow	30	0.50	42
9. Liverpool	24	0.50	42
10. Swansea	9	0.50	42
11. Plymouth	13	0.49	39
12. Oxford	8	0.48	38
13. Newcastle upon Tyne	14	0.48	38
14. Manchester	25	0.47	36
15. Belfast	15	0.45	35
16. Bournemouth	8	0.44	34
17. Reading	10	0.43	32
18. Southampton	11	0.43	32
19. London	349	0.40	30
20. Cardiff	13	0.38	26
21. Nottingham	11	0.34	25
22. York	6	0.29	24
23. Leicester	10	0.29	24
24. Birmingham	29	0.26	21
25. Leeds	15	0.19	16

Art Galleries

Last, but by no means least, we've taken a look at the number of art galleries per 10,000 inhabitants across each town and city, showcasing not only the artistic talent within the area, but also the demand for this side of the 'creative space' from locals:

Town/City	Art Galleries	Per/10,000 People	Rank
1. Edinburgh	48	1.03	50
2. Norwich	13	0.92	49
3. Brighton and Hove	22	0.80	48
4. Belfast	21	0.63	47
5. Plymouth	14	0.53	46
6. Ipswich	7	0.52	45
7. Cardiff	18	0.52	45
8. Oxford	8	0.48	43
9. Newcastle upon Tyne	14	0.48	43
10. Glasgow	28	0.46	41
11. York	9	0.43	41
12. Manchester	16	0.30	37
13. Swansea	5	0.28	36
14. Bristol	12	0.27	34
15. Aberdeen	4	0.20	33
16. Southampton	5	0.20	33
17. Liverpool	9	0.19	31
18. London	131	0.15	27
19. Reading	3	0.13	26
20. Nottingham	4	0.12	25
21. Bournemouth	2	0.11	24
22. Birmingham	11	0.10	23
23. Leicester	3	0.09	22
24. Leeds	7	0.09	22
25. Cambridge	0	0.00	1

The 10 Least Creative Towns & Cities In The UK

We know you're not just wondering where the most creative towns and cities are but also the least. As such, here's a summary of the bottom 10 positions in the research:

Town/City	Creative Jobs Rank	Creative University Rank	Theatre & Concert Venue Rank	Art Galleries Rank	Total Rank
Southend-on-Sea	2	0	18	30	50
Sunderland	5	26	7	11	49
Poole	18	0	11	13	42
Wolverhampton	14	0	9	17	40
Swindon	23	0	16	1	40
Slough	35	0	1	1	37
Luton	16	13	4	1	34
Bradford	3	0	7	22	32
Warrington	19	0	5	1	25
Telford	12	0	2	1	15

Sources

Jobs

The amount of jobs being advertised in the local area on Indeed, with the term ‘creative’ in the description, per 10,000 people.

Creative University Score

The average scores for Art & Design, Drama, Dance & Cinematics, History of Art, Architecture & Design and Music courses, from The Complete University Guide, added together to give a total score.

Theatre/Concert Venues and Art Galleries

Taken from TripAdvisor.

Where we Come in

Here at SilverDoor Apartments, we facilitate business travel all over the globe and in a number of different industries. So, whether you're working for a multinational corporation or a new start-up, we can help you with your temporary accommodation needs.