"Sometimes I feel like my only friend is the city I live in, The City of Angels, lonely as I am together we cry" - Red Hot Chili Peppers, Under the Bridge
I've never felt as settled as I did in Brighton & Hove. After just a few weeks there as a 19-year-old, it felt as if the city was my friend - just like the Red Hot Chili Peppers song - and one of the people I stayed with during Swenglish said: Brighton treats me well, as if it was truly a character.
Most of the people I stayed with in England lived in the Brighton area and a majority said they felt very settled there and couldn't imagine living anywhere else in Britain. Funnily enough no one was born in Brighton and only two had lived their as kids. The rest had moved there to study - or in many cases just ended up there because Brighton had a good vibe. Open-minded and friendly were words that turned up time and time again.
Of the Swedes, 8 of 15 felt very settled in their current cities or towns. Especially the ones who lived in Umeå (both of them from Småland) seemed to be in love with their city, but also 3 out of 4 people in Stockholm (none of them native) felt very settled. So you don't have to be born and bred in a certain place to feel settled. Only 7 out of 30 people lived in or near their hometown.
My dilemma is that I feel more settled in Brighton than in Sweden, but I feel more settled in Sweden than in England ...
This study is by no means scientific, the answers are based on interviewing 15 people in England and 15 people in Sweden, aged 22-59. Look out for the next question: How settled do you feel in your neighbourhood?
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