Best UK Cities to Learn Yoga

Today, thanks to the wealth of information available on the internet and informative campaigns, the public now is a great deal more aware of the overarching benefits of following a healthy lifestyle. Modern life can be full of stress, so why not try and do something that is therapeutic and relaxing, and at the same time gets you fit?

In 2021, a staggering 460,000 Brits participated in yoga classes every week! This 5,000-year-old practice from the Indus-Sarasvati civilization in Northern India can be a wholesome holistic remedy to help you contend with everyday gripes and stresses.

The UK is home to a long list of cities with an exciting buzzing ambience that you can’t quite put your finger on. CIA’s landlord insurance specialists decided to delve into the best UK cities to learn yoga. We looked at things such as the number of yoga classes and dedicated studio spaces, and also the amount of yoga-related jobs available in each city.

Continue reading so you can discover all about the best UK cities to learn yoga!

London is the best city in the UK to learn yoga

London is a buzzing epicentre full of creativity and opportunities to take part in fun past times. Considering learning yoga? Our research has unearthed that the best city to learn yoga in the UK is in fact London.

London has always been a place which has led the way when it comes to trends in the UK, and the same is true for the growing trend in the popularity of people taking up yoga. These rankings were based on the three different metrics we decided to draw on, the number of classes, access to yoga studios, and the availability of yoga-related jobs, and London came out on top!

Everyone needs some time to wind down, and learning yoga is an ideal escape for people feeling stressed out at working and living in the capital. We found out that London has an abundance of yoga classes and studios, and it’s the best UK city for yoga-related jobs. Looking after your health and wellbeing if you’re living a stressful cosmopolitan life in London is essential, and for this reason, studies have shown a large number of Londoners exercise regularly during the week to let off some steam.

In our research, Birmingham finished in 2nd place and Glasgow 3rd for overall rankings for the best UK cities to learn yoga. Not only is Brum a fabulous place to take up yoga, but Birmingham is also a thriving cultural hub and a great place for young people to live.

Glasgow finished in 3rd

Glasgow may be a surprising one, but this wonderful Scottish city finished in 3rd place! Glasgow is a splendid place to live with lots going on. If you’re a culture vulture, be sure to head on down to the Hunterian Art Gallery in the University of Glasgow, Scotland’s oldest public building. Glasgow is also a sports-mad city, and home to the world-famous Rangers and Celtic football clubs. The city hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2014. With its inhabitants having such a passion for sports and fitness, it’s little surprise learning yoga has become so popular in Glasgow!

Bristol came 4th

Bristol finished in a respectable 4th place, and it’s a city with a reputation for having a vibrant creative scene and being full of life. Our research shows that it’s a fantastic place to learn yoga! So, if you moving to Bristol and are keen on getting yourself fit while enjoying some quality time to chill out, you’ll have an abundance of yoga activities taking place right on your doorstep.

Leeds and Leicester

Our findings found Leeds and Leicester to be the joint worst out of the top 10 populated cities in the UK when comes to places to learn yoga. However, both cities are nevertheless great places to visit with hoards of exciting bars and restaurants and booming student populations.

London has the greatest number of yoga classes

In order to learn about the fundamental yoga poses (asanas), you will need to attend yoga classes. Going to yoga classes is fun, and aside from the various benefits for your physical health and mental wellbeing, it can be a great way to socialise and make new friends. The research we carried out on the cities with the largest number of yoga classes available uncovered London to be the winner, with 341 classes on offer.

Birmingham finished 2nd again with 67 different yoga classes on offer and Bristol 3rd with 56. Therefore, our research proved that it’s not only in London that you have the opportunity to attend inspiring and relaxing yoga classes!

*Please note the figures for these classes are correct as of December 2022

London is the best UK city to find yoga-related jobs

If you take up yoga and then find yourself becoming fascinated by it and it turns into a real passion of yours, you may want to go for a job that involves yoga in some way. As they say, do something you love and you’ll never work a day in your life!

In our research findings, London came in 1st place when it comes to yoga-related jobs available. At the time of research, we discovered there were 25 different yoga- related jobs in London being advertised on Google job ads. For this metric, London was well ahead of Birmingham in 2nd place with six yoga-related jobs available.

Have you become besotted with yoga and are interested in teaching and coaching yoga to other people as a profession? In that case, our research tells you that London is very much the place to be for yoga-related jobs.

Whether it be teaching yoga to the elderly, young people, the disabled and people with learning disabilities, or anyone that fancies giving it a go, having a yoga-related job could be pretty enriching and exciting!

*Please note the figures for ‘yoga-related jobs’ available are correct as of December 2022.

London is the UK city with the most yoga studios

Since yoga has risen in popularity in recent years, dedicated yoga studios have popped up all over the place. Our research found that London has a staggering 133 yoga studios for you to make the most of.

Our data showed Glasgow and Bristol coming in second and third place, with 88 and 86 yoga studios respectively. Edinburgh also came in a close fourth place with 85 studios in the city. Our research helped to demonstrate that there is an abundance of yoga studios in UK cities, and therefore it’s a better time than ever to pick up yoga if you live in an urban area.

So, why has learning yoga become so popular?

You might be wondering about the reasons why learning yoga has become so popular in the UK and across the globe. Well, a lot of it is to do with there being a large number of significant benefits of practising yoga for our physical and mental wellbeing. People who want to improve their health and general wellbeing in a relaxing way which fits around their work and lifestyle often choose to learn yoga these days.

Here are a few examples of how practising yoga regularly can help lift your quality of life:

• Enhanced muscle strength and tone
• Improved respiration due to breathing exercises
• Healthy weight loss
• Improved cardiac health
• Reduced risk of injury
• Improved flexibility
• Higher levels of stamina
• Helps combat high blood pressure
• Studies have shown the physical and psychological benefits for people aged 60+ can help them age better

Methodology

The goal of our research was to gather information and data on three different metrics in order to help us determine the best cities in the UK to learn yoga. We did this by focusing on the top 10 most populated cities in the UK.

The first metric we concentrated on was the availability of yoga classes in each of the cities we looked at. We found these figures by looking at the ‘Find a Yoga Class’ section of the British Wheel of Yoga website – the national governing body of yoga.

The second metric focussed on was how easy it is in each city to find a job where you’d regularly be working using yoga practices. We found data on the number of yoga-related jobs currently available in each city by searching the term ‘Yoga jobs’ along with the city in question on the jobs search filter on google.com.

For instance, searching ‘Yoga jobs Birmingham’ told us the total number of yoga-related jobs on offer at the present time in Birmingham on Google’s jobs advertisement pages. These jobs can include anything involving yoga, such as being an instructor, teaching kids yoga, and so on. For this metric, we did count yoga-related jobs being carried out online, as long as this was done so within the city in question.

The third metric involved collecting data on the number of yoga studios in each city. We unearthed these figures by typing the term ‘Yoga Studio’ in the ‘Search Nearby’ tool in Google Maps for each city of the 10 UK cities.

Sources
https://www.bwy.org.uk/find-a-yoga-class/
https://www.thegeographist.com/uk-cities-population-1000/
https://www.google.com/
https://www.google.co.uk/maps