YOU are where you live. The growing mobility of modern Britain is creating, or reinforcing, particular personality types in different regions.

Londoners appear to be changing fastest, displaying sharply elevated levels of creativity, intellect, open-mindedness and extroversion when compared with people living in Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the rest of England.

People living in Wales, by contrast, emerge from the Cambridge University study as less extrovert, less conscientious and more anxious than the English, Scots or Northern Irish.

Similar differences appear in the English regions, with people from Devon, Cornwall, Northumberland and Tyneside being the least outgoing and the most neurotic.

The study contradicts the idea that globalisation and the internet are ironing out differences between regions. Instead it suggests pre-existing differences between regions are being amplified, with different personality types clustering ever more strongly in places where they will find others of a like mind.

Such findings could be seen as simply reinforcing stereotypes, such as that of the sharp scouser. However, Jason Rentfrow, the researcher who led the study, said the findings were more subtle and far more practical, indicating that people’s choice of where to live was now as important as choosing a career or a spouse.

“People’s level of satisfaction with their lives is strongly affected by where they live. Our findings suggest they are happiest where their personalities most closely resemble that of the other people in that area,” he said.

Underlying the research is the idea that people of differing personalities would once have been randomly distributed but, as social mobility has increased, they move to places that suit their personalities.

This means people with extrovert, open personalities, higher intellect and a longing for diversity and stimulation gravitate towards cities, while those with a tendency towards introversion and relaxation would head for small towns or the countryside.

Rentfrow has already published a study of personality across America, in which he mapped variations in the “Big Five” traits: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and intellect.

The results, based on more than 600,000 questionnaires, confirmed that personalities are not distributed randomly but are becoming clustered into distinct geographic patterns.

He found that people living on the east coast of America, especially New England, were relatively stressed, irritable and depressed, while those on the west coast were more emotionally stable, calm and relaxed. People on both coasts were, however, stronger on traits such as openness and imagination than people living in the central and southern states. Clustering has accelerated because America is such a mobile country.

Rentfrow is still working on his UK data, collected from profiles of 11,088 people conducted between 2002 and 2006, but said similar differences were emerging in Britain.

The personalities of Londoners, for example, were now so different from those of other regions as to make the capital the cultural equivalent of “another country”.

“London is becoming psychologically separate from the rest of the nation,” he said. “People in London tend to be, on average, more analytical, assertive, dominant, efficient and creative. People in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales are less open-minded, more traditional and less tolerant of differences.” However, people in other parts of Britain scored more highly than Londoners in other ways, with the Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish and east Midlanders all emerging as far more agreeable than Londoners.

Rentfrow’s work challenges the idea that people’s choice of where to live is becoming less important. This was championed by Thomas Friedman, who, in his book The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, argued globalisation would iron out regional differences.

It meant people could work just as efficiently from a village in Snowdonia, provided they had the internet, as from an office in London. “When the world is flat,” wrote Friedman, “you can innovate without having to emigrate.”

Richard Florida, professor of business and creativity at the University of Toronto, and author of Who’s Your City, which looks at the psychological profiles of people living in the world’s biggest cities, said: “Friedman’s idea is compelling but it is wrong.

“Globally, economic growth now comes from the clustering and concentrating of talented and productive people in particular areas. Open-minded and talented people are moving away from their home towns into those areas.”

Some recognise their personalities are not suited to living in a city, and move out. Edwina Scott, 24, quit London for Jersey, where she works as a marketing administrator. “When I’m back in Jersey I realise just how frantic London is,” she said.

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