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:

  1. Devon
  2. Cumbria
  3. North Yorkshire
  4. Cornwall
  5. Somerset
  6. Kent
  7. Norfolk
  8. Hampshire
  9. Dorset
  10. Greater London
  11. Northumberland
  12. Gloucestershire
  13. Wiltshire
  14. East Sussex
  15. Surrey
  16. Oxfordshire
  17. Shropshire
  18. Essex
  19. Lancashire
  20. Berkshire
  21. Worcestershire
  22. Lincolnshire
  23. Derbyshire
  24. Cheshire
  25. Wester Yorkshire
  26. Herefordshire
  27. Staffordshire
  28. Nottinghamshire
  29. Cambridgeshire
  30. South Yorkshire
  31. Rutland
  32. Isle of Wight
  33. Buckinghamshire
  34. West Midlands
  35. Greater Manchester
  36. Tyne and Wear
  37. Durham
  38. Leicestershire
  39. Warwickshire
  40. Hertfordshire
  41. Northamptonshire
  42. East Riding
  43. Merseyside
  44. City of London
  45. Bristol
  46. 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.”