News Release
20th May 2021
Report shows Bristol, Newcastle, Oxford and Nottingham among the UK’s most caring towns and cities.
A new report from map gift company Bombus reveals some interesting trends regarding the UK’s most thoughtful and caring towns and cities, with Bristol, Newcastle, Oxford, and Nottingham showing they have the biggest hearts when it comes to personalised gifts purchased for family, friends, colleagues and loved ones.

The UK’s top 20 most thoughtful towns and cities (calculated by total volume of gifts purchased per capita of population) uses data for the period 1st October 2020 to 31st March 2021 and identifies the following order.

Position Location
1st Bristol
2nd Newcastle
3rd Oxford
4th Nottingham
5th Reading
6th Derby
7th Exeter
8th Glasgow
9th Norwich
10th Aberdeen
11th Bedford
12th Southampton
13th Edinburgh
14th Maidstone
15th Manchester
16th Brighton
17th Cardiff
18th Stoke
19th Coventry
20th Dartford

At the opposite end of the altruistic scale there were some surprises, with several larger towns and cities such as Carlisle, Halifax, Lincoln, Doncaster and Newport showing gifting tendencies significantly below the nationwide average.

Whilst being in the top 20 towns and cities is a strong indication of how thoughtful, romantic or caring the location is for gifting per capita of population, the towns and cities listed below can also lay some claim to having the biggest hearts as they led the way in the actual propensity to buy a gift v the websites average in this period, which was 3.1%.

Farnborough’s propensity to buy was 8.8%
Bath’s propensity to buy was 7.3%
Guildford’s propensity to buy was 7.1%
Harrogate’s propensity to buy was 6.9%
Rochdale’s propensity to buy was 6.7%
Hemel Hempstead’s propensity to buy was 6.4%

What were the reasons for such a huge number of thoughtful gifts being sent out? According to Amelia Coward, Bombus Managing Director, it was because the nation missed their Mums. Amelia says “We saw a huge lift in people sending keepsake gifts and thinking of you cards. Not just around Mother’s Day, but for the whole of last year. People really missed their Mums and were desperate for that long-awaited hug.”
Amelia continues, “All of the gifts from Bombus can be personalised with a meaningful message, so people were sending hugs through the post to their loved ones. But lately the messages have become much more optimistic and hopeful as there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

When the volume of gifts purchased is broken down across the home nations, England dominates with 86.9% of all purchases, followed by Scotland 7.8%, Wales 3.7% and N. Ireland 1.6%.

Who was responsible for the most purchases?

In terms of the individuals behind these gift transactions during the 6-month report period, the following gender and age brackets were the most likely to purchase a gift for someone they care about.

Women completed 69% of all transactions
25-34 years old were the most likely group to purchase a gift (27.7% of transactions)
35-44 years old were the second most likely group to purchase a gift (18.1% of transactions)

On a personal level, and based on the messages that often accompany a Bombus gift, the people buying these gifts were friends purchasing something special for their best friends, daughters choosing something to send to their Mum, and family members reaching out to those they had been unable to see for several months.

Outside of the UK, the most thoughtful international cities for buying gifts for loved one’s were Sydney, Melbourne, San Antonio, Singapore, Paris, New York and Dubai.
Across all nations, the sentiments behind the gifts were the same. Thinking of you, thank you, and missing you.

But what were people buying?

The categories that saw the biggest volume of sales were ‘Thinking of You Gifts’, and ‘Thank You Gifts’. Which shows just how thoughtful and considerate the intentions were behind these purchases.

With Mother’s Day in the UK still carrying a number of restrictions on travel, ‘Missing You’ gifts and messages of thanks were very popular when it came to adults sending extra special keepsakes to their Mums.

There was also a big lift in last minute sentimental gifts at Christmas. Once the rules were changed to lockdown over the holiday, a number of purchases were those who were making promises of future celebrations, and emotional expressions of how much their loved ones would be missed.

Some of the most popular gifts purchased across all geographic locations are listed below, but for the full list of the top selling items and images, along with a more thorough article on the information within this release, please visit here:
https://www.bombus.co.uk/blog/2174/who-are-the-most-thoughtful-and-caring-people-in-the-uk/

Daffodil in bottle with personalised message
Personalised map location wall art hexagon
You are my world keepsake bottle
Personalised pet dog hanging keepsake

ENDS

Notes for Editor:
Release issued by Jo Dench Owens for Bombus
Contact details [email protected]

About Bombus
Bombus is the Original Map Gift Company. Based in the Kent countryside just outside of Faversham, all of their personalised gifts and homewares are made by hand in their Oast House studio. A team of artists and crafts women run the studio under the directorship of Amelia Coward, artist. Bombus has been creating handmade art and gifts for over fifteen years, and as well as trading through their own website www.bombus.co.uk Bombus is also a valued and original seller on both Not on the High Street, and Etsy UK.

www.bombus.co.uk

About the data in this release
Generated bi-annually in April and October for previous 6-month period
Source of data combines Magento platform, Google Analytics and postal software
Data compares 10,000s of transactions including those from ETSY