New analysis ranks 50 major English urban centres on the support, care and community signals that help children grow up in kinder environments.
Gateshead ranks first overall, helped by a perfect childcare quality score, strong access to children's charities, high youth service funding and one of the highest levels of local search interest in teaching kindness.
The North East town led the ranking with the highest Kindness Index Score in the study, scoring particularly well for childcare quality and community interest in kindness.
The strongest performers did not rely on one single measure. They tended to combine high-quality early-years provision with local support networks and visible public interest in teaching kindness.
Salford, Bury and Brighton & Hove join Gateshead and Solihull in the leading group, showing strong scores outside London and the South East.
Salford recorded the highest teaching kindness search rate, with 289 searches per 10,000 people.
Blackpool recorded the highest youth service funding figure, at £2,818 per child.
Each metric was converted into percentile rankings before being combined, with exclusion rates inverted because lower rates are better.
Gateshead, Solihull and Kingston upon Hull each scored 100% for Good or Outstanding Ofsted-rated providers.
Slough recorded the lowest combined exclusion and suspension rate, at 4.85.
York led for children's charities, with 107.03 per 10,000 under-18s.
Blackpool ranked first for youth service funding, at £2,818 per child.
Salford ranked first for teaching kindness search interest, at 289 searches per 10,000 people.
Use the table to compare each town or city by region, score and the five child-focused indicators used in the study.
| Rank | City | Region | Score | Ofsted % | Exclusion rate | Charities per 10k | Funding per child | Searches per 10k |
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We ranked 50 English towns and cities using five equally weighted indicators. Each indicator was converted into a percentile score, then combined into one final Kindness Index. Lower exclusion and suspension rates scored higher.
The percentage of registered early-years and childcare providers rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted.
The combined permanent exclusions and suspensions rate per 100 pupils. Lower rates were scored more positively.
Active registered charities focused on children and young people, normalised by the under-18 population.
Local authority Net Current Expenditure on children and young people's services per under-18 resident.
Aggregated local searches for kindness-related education terms, normalised per 10,000 people.
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