DEVON has been named the best county in England in a new ranked list released by the Telegraph.
The Telegraph have crunched data across 41 categories, from national parks to crime rate, to reveal which county is the best.
This year The Telegraph judges have had new criteria added which consider the number of top golf courses, highest waterfall, number of National Trails and crime rate.
They have also added points for properties recognised in the Telegraph Hotel awards and the new Michelin Keys scheme – both launched in 2024.
See below the final list ranked from highest to lowest counties in England:
- Devon
- Cumbria
- North Yorkshire
- Cornwall
- Somerset
- Kent
- Norfolk
- Hampshire
- Dorset
- Greater London
- Northumberland
- Gloucestershire
- Wiltshire
- East Sussex
- Surrey
- Oxfordshire
- Shropshire
- Essex
- Lancashire
- Berkshire
- Worcestershire
- Lincolnshire
- Derbyshire
- Cheshire
- Wester Yorkshire
- Herefordshire
- Staffordshire
- Nottinghamshire
- Cambridgeshire
- South Yorkshire
- Rutland
- Isle of Wight
- Buckinghamshire
- West Midlands
- Greater Manchester
- Tyne and Wear
- Durham
- Leicestershire
- Warwickshire
- Hertfordshire
- Northamptonshire
- East Riding
- Merseyside
- City of London
- Bristol
- Bedfordshire
“Holidays in Devon are simple, wholesome and old-fashioned. A trip here mixes two of life’s loveliest pleasures: delicious food and the great outdoors,” said Suzy Bennett, destination expert.
For natural wonders Devon ranked 1st place in England, for history and culture and luxuries it ranked 3rd place, for peace and quiet it ranked 14th place and for the reader poll it ranked 3rd. The total school for Devon was 981.
“Devon didn’t just top our rankings – it blew away the competition,” a spokesperson for the Telegraph said. “Simply put, it has everything.”
With two national parks, five national landscapes, 14 blue flag beaches, 495kms of coast, nine RSPB reserves, an RHS garden, vast tracts of woodland, 177 museums and galleries, 34 national trust listings, 13 English heritage properties and – in Exeter – a cathedral, Premiership Rugby, five Michelin-starred restaurants, one of the 50 best hotels on Earth, according to Telegraph Travel (Hotel Endsleigh in Tavistock) and two hotels with 5 AA Red Stars (Gidleigh Park and Bovey Castle), Devon won by a landslide.
“In a nip-and-tuck competition, this represented a chasm,” the spokesperson added. "It’s the English county that comes closest to perfection. You cant argue with science.”
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