The Mouldiest Cities in the UK

Anyone living in the UK knows it rains. A lot. Residents deal with bad weather daily and are prepared for it. But Britain’s damp climate and constant showers also wreak havoc on UK houses. Damp, condensation and mould are issues that can lead to property damage and may even affect the health of occupants.

While the Met Office has plenty of data on the UK areas that receive the most rain, in which areas are you most likely to find damp indoors? The team at Allerton Damp Proofing have analysed a year of Google searches for damp solutions across the UK to reveal the areas where residents have the most issues with their property and damp.

Using the content research tool Ahrefs, the team found the most common questions online relating to damp, condensation and mould. They then analysed these in Google Keyword Planner to calculate the number of people who searched for damp-related problems and solutions over the past year across the UK.

There have been 12,636,555 damp issue queries in the UK this past year.

Over 12 million people experienced damp issues this past year. The majority of these were located in England, where 10,999,963 people had damp housing issues. This is followed by Scotland, with 758,473 people experiencing damp issues, then Wales with 637,398 searches. Northern Ireland had 227,646 damp problems, while the residents of the Isle of Man only searched for damp issues 13,075 times.

Where are the majority of people experiencing damp issues?

Over the past year, 1,266,656 people searched for damp issues and solutions in the capital. With a population of 9,304,000, almost 1 in 7 Londoners are experiencing damp, mould or condensation.

The top ten mouldiest cities:

1. London (1,266,656 searches)

2. Birmingham (227,537 searches)

3. Bristol (152,955 searches)

4. Liverpool (110,354 searches)

5. Sheffield (98,355 searches)

6. Manchester (96,657 searches)

7. Glasgow (95,294 searches)

8. Edinburgh (91,549 searches)

9. Leeds (87,953 searches)

10. Bournemouth (76,314 searches)

Tenth spot Bournemouth has a population of just 198,296, with 76,314 people searching for damp solutions. Therefore 4 in 10 residents may have experienced issues with damp, mould and condensation in their homes.