West Lothian is all smiles after it was rated Scotland's happiest place.

Researchers have also ranked West Lothian third highest in a list of 273 areas throughout Britain.

"This is further confirmation that West Lothian is a great place to live, work and visit," said Councillor Peter Johnston, Leader of West Lothian Council.

"It is the latest in a series of top accolades for West Lothian.

"West Lothian offers an excellent quality of life which has been recognised with its new ranking as Scotland's happiest place, which we obviously warmly welcome."

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Martyn Day, Executive councillor for development and transport, added: "This is really great news for West Lothian. It is always nice to receive national recognition of this type. I hope it will encourage even more people to come and visit West Lothian, where we can guarantee a happy, smiling welcome."

A team from the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester used data from the British Household Panel Survey, where people were asked about their sense of wellbeing, to draw up a map of happiness for England, Scotland and Wales.

After adding in factors such as employment, health and educational qualifications, they found that Powys in Wales was the happiest place. Manchester came second, followed by West Lothian.

Edinburgh finished bottom of the list of 273 areas covered by the happiest places survey. The research was presented at the annual conference of the Royal Geographic Society and the Institute of British Geographers.

(GK/JM)