North Yorkshire is THE place to live, official statistics revealed today.

More than 16,000 people have set up home in the county since 1991, taking the population up to 561,400 last year.

And an extra 2,400 people settled in York during the same period.

East Yorkshire proved just as attractive, with 15,200 people moving into the region between 1991 and 1997.

The population surge is in stark contrast to West and South Yorkshire, where thousands of people departed during the six-year period, according to the figures released by the Office for National Statistics.

According to residents, it is North and East Yorkshire's attractive environment which puts it near the top of the list of places people want to live.

Author Peter Walker, alias Nicholas Rhea, whose work led to television series Heartbeat, which has brought North Yorkshire to the attention of millions of TV viewers, said the county was the best place to live.

He said: "Someone once told me Yorkshire has got everything needed to make life complete. It offers quality of life, friendly people, the countryside, charming towns and bigger shopping towns, in fact everything that you would want.

"I have always known it is the finest place to live and to work, and I've always been surprised so few people knew about it. It looks like people are now beginning to discover what Yorkshire has to offer."

John Shannon, chairman of York Civic Trust, said: "It is no surprise to me that a lot of people are choosing to live in York. York is the right size for people to be able to know each other and it's kept its human scale in the sense that there are no high-rise buildings to challenge the Minster. This has been lost in a lot of other towns.

"There is also a great deal of history and people respond to this. To walk where Normans, Vikings and Romans have walked before evokes strong emotions in people."

He said other factors, including good railway links with London and other cities and a size which makes it easy to walk round, make it an ideal and attractive city to live in.

He said: "If you stopped somebody on the street and asked why they lived in York, they probably wouldn't be able to tell you, but all these features increase quality of life and make it very attractive.

"York is a unique city and there are not many like it any more."

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