Stoke area 'is least fragmented'

People in north Staffordshire and south Cheshire have the strongest sense of belonging in the UK, research suggests.

The Changing UK report, commissioned by BBC Nations and Regions, looked at how communities have changed over 40 years.

Britain was more polarised with people living among their "own kind" in terms of age and economics, which may lead to feelings of isolation, it found.

But social fragmentation was lowest in the BBC Radio Stoke area, the report suggested.

The report, based on the Census and other statistics, considered communities in terms of the BBC's 15 television regions and 45 local radio areas.

Professor Danny Dorling and his team at Sheffield University, looked at five categories to consider the change in communities over the past 40 years.

Renting property

In considering social fragmentation, researchers used "anomie", the sociological term for "not belonging".

It takes into account factors such as the number of people who have moved to their address within the last year and the number of people renting property.

The anomie index for Stoke was lowest in Stoke and highest in Edinburgh, where social fragmentation was considered highest.

Researchers said Stoke also had the lowest social fragmentation for 1991 and 1971 - but in 1981 it was Swansea.

Using the same criteria, social fragmentation was found to be the lowest in the Northern Ireland TV region, followed by the West Midlands.