IT'S official - North Yorkshire is a healthy place to live.

A major new survey by market researchers CACI and TNS has found that people living in many areas of the county have some of the healthiest lifestyles in the country.

Ryedale was named eighth out of more than 400 local authority areas for the way its residents lived - including their diet and exercise habits.

Selby also scored extremely highly with a ranking of 14, while York managed to squeeze into the top third with a rating of 123.

Dr John Iredale, a GP at Copmanthorpe surgery, said he was not surprised York had been given a relatively high score because of the general good health of its population.

But he added: "Having said that, I think there are a fair few people who are overweight and there are still issues around smoking.

"They say that York is a bit like a southern city, with a slightly different population mix.

"I am surprised that Selby has done so well when compared with York, but I'm not surprised that York is relatively high up."

Researchers rated each authority area in different ways - including how healthy lifestyles were, existing problems with poor diet, patterns of eating and serious illness, and whether poor lifestyles would lead to health problems in the future.

York was ranked roughly in the middle of the country for the extent of its health problems, such as eating habits and illness, and slightly higher for how it was likely to fare in the future.

Selby was also considered to have relatively few existing health issues, while Ryedale and Hambleton were in the top third of the country for levels of current illness.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust said: "We know that one of the things people most value about living in areas such as Ryedale is the quality of life, and this can reflect positively on how people feel about their general health."

Some of the unhealthiest places in the country were in Easington, in County Durham, and the Welsh valleys.

Here there were high levels of serious illnesses, and heavy concentrations of people, a combination which put a severe burden on local NHS services.

Inner London, Nottingham and Hull were where people lived who had the most unhealthy lifestyles, which were likely to lead to severe problems in the future.