North Hertfordshire has been ranked among the most connected communities in England, according to new figures examining trust, neighbourliness and social cohesion.

The district has been placed 24th out of 296 local authority areas in England in the new "Connection Barometer", giving North Herts a score of 83 out of 100.

The ranking forms part of the National Conversation project, which aims to explore how people feel about the communities in which they live.

One of the standout findings for North Hertfordshire is the proportion of residents who believe people from different backgrounds get on well together.

Some 91.4 per cent of people in North Herts gave a positive response – significantly above the England average of 80.6 per cent.

The Connection Barometer brings together eight different measures to produce an overall indication of how an area compares with the rest of England.

The National Conversation describes the score as a "rough guide, not a final measure", with the overall result based on the average of an area's position in England across the eight measures.

The figures are drawn from the Government's Community Life Survey 2024/25 and examine subjects including people's relationships with their neighbourhoods, levels of trust and loneliness, volunteering and community cohesion.

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While the statistics cover the whole of North Hertfordshire rather than Hitchin specifically, the district's 24th-place ranking puts it within the top ten per cent of England's 296 local authority areas.

The National Conversation is designed and run independently by researchers at Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

Residents can use the project's online Connection Barometer to see how North Hertfordshire compares with other parts of the country.