YORK has been ranked as the most "book smart" city in the UK, according to new research.

The study from TheKnowledgeAcademy.com measured the number of bookshops and libraries across major UK towns and cities using OpenStreetMap's API overpass.

Two cities finished on top in the search for the nation’s best city for book lovers. The city of York has more bookshops per capita, but Oxford ‘s famous University helps to boost the local library count to 20, the most per person of all cities studied.

"Both cities scored a 9.77 out of 10, highlighting that they’re near perfect places for book lovers to visit," a spokesperson for the study said.

Closely following York and Oxford in third is another city shaped by history and education. Cambridge, with a score of 9.61/10. Cambridge has the second most libraries per head of all locations ranked, however its fewer book shops means it just falls short of taking the top spot.

In joint fourth place are Northern powerhouses Manchester and Edinburgh, with scores of 9.37/10.

Brighton and Hove follows in sixth, scoring a highly respectable 9.14/10 - its high count of book shops being met by a low count of public libraries in the area.