Norwich has just swiped right on the rest of the country – and won!
In a new ‘freedom index’ looking at where single life genuinely works in 2026, the Norfolk city has been named the best place in the UK to be single, beating big hitters like Liverpool, Glasgow and even London itself.
The ranking, commissioned by adult services site AdultWork, crunches data from hundreds of local authorities to answer one very modern question: where can you live alone, have a social life and still afford the rent?
Norwich: the unlikely single-life capital
Norwich tops the table thanks to a mix of big dating pool and buzzy social scene. Nearly two-thirds of its adults (65.1%) are legally single, which translates to 78,635 people looking beyond coupledom.
On the ground, it’s not just about numbers: the city packs in 650 dining and daytime venues (53.8 per 10,000 adults) plus 160 pubs and bars, giving plenty of options for first dates, solo brunches and everything in between.
Rent, while not dirt cheap, is still relatively manageable by UK standards. A typical one-bedroom home in Norwich costs £9,360 a year and takes up 30.5% of the local median salary of £30,716 – enough to sting, but not enough to completely kill your social life.
Put together, those factors give the city a freedom index score of 63.78 out of 100, placing it firmly at number one.
The UK’s top 10 places to be single (final score out of 100)
The full top 10 is an interesting mix of big cities, student hubs and quieter corners of the map that are quietly thriving for solo living.
- Norwich (East of England) – 63.78
- Liverpool (North West) – 62.39
- Powys (Wales) – 61.59
- Dundee City (Scotland) – 61.10
- Lincoln (East Midlands) – 60.98
- Gwynedd (Wales) – 60.31
- Camden (London) – 59.36
- Islington (London) – 58.90
- Glasgow City (Scotland) – 58.58
- Blaenau Gwent (Wales) – 58.22
Liverpool grabs second place, with 254,020 single adults – around 63% of its population – and one of the strongest going-out scenes in the country.
There are also 1,775 restaurants and cafés and 521 pubs and bars for you to mingle in, and a one-bed property will set you back about £8,064 a year, or 25.6% of the local median wage.
Powys in mid Wales lands third thanks to rock-bottom rent (just £5,556 a year for a one-bed, only 17.9% of local wages) and an impressive number of pubs and bars for its size (although fewer single adults overall stop it climbing any higher).
Dundee comes in fourth as Scotland’s best bet for single life, with 57.7% of adults legally single and solid scores for affordability and social options.
Lincoln, fifth, balances a high single population (62.9%) with relatively decent rents at £7,944 a year for a one-bed.
London: hot dates, cold reality
London doesn’t disappear from the single-life map – inner boroughs Camden and Islington both crack the top 10 – but the overall picture is less flattering. These two areas score highly thanks to dense nightlife, plenty of daytime venues and big concentrations of single adults, confirming what most Londoners already know: if you’re young, single and earning OK money, those neighbourhoods can feel like the centre of the universe.
Zoom out, though, and the capital and its commuter belt dominate the wrong end of the list. Harrow ranks dead last among all 346 areas, with Redbridge and Hart just ahead.
High rents plus modest dating pools are the recurring problem. In Harrow, for instance, a one-bedroom flat costs £16,500 a year and eats up 43.9% of the local median salary…which doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for drinks, dinners or last-minute gig tickets.
How the freedom index actually works
Rather than just counting how many single people live in each area, AdultWork’s study mixes five ingredients that tend to matter when you’re living solo:
- Dating pool: the share of adults who are legally single (defined as never married and never in a civil partnership).
- Affordability: how much of the local median annual wage it takes to rent a one-bedroom property for a year (the lower, the better).
- Dining and daytime venues: number of restaurants, cafés, takeaways and hotels per 10,000 adults.
- Nightlife: pubs, bars and nightclubs per 10,000 adults.
- Safety: recorded crimes per 1,000 people, with safer places scoring higher.
Each local authority was scored out of 10 on these metrics, then blended into a final weighted score out of 100.
(It’s worth noting that England, Wales and Scotland all make the cut; Northern Ireland doesn’t, due to data gaps.)
Rethinking where single life thrives
The story the numbers tell is pretty clear: if you’ve always assumed being single in Britain means a cramped flat and long commutes in London, it might be time to update the picture.
Smaller cities like Norwich, Liverpool, Lincoln and Dundee, plus rural Welsh areas such as Powys and Gwynedd, all offer credible alternatives – often with more space, less financial stress and still plenty of places to go out.
For anyone heading into a new season of life – post-breakup, post-uni or simply ready to relocate – this index is an invitation to think beyond the usual suspects.
If you had to pick just one of the five factors (dating pool, rent, food spots, nightlife or safety) as your number one priority, which would matter most to you in choosing where to live?
