Revealed: Wakefield is the second best city in the UK to raise a baby

However, there’s more to consider than just toys and baby clothes, what about the city you live in?

It’s no secret that some areas are more family-friendly than others, but how do you choose between them and select the best place for you and your kids to live?

Play Like Mum took the guesswork out of it, by comparing the cost of childcare, safety, number of child-friendly attractions and restaurants and the number of children in the area, to reveal the UK’s top baby-raising cities.

Wakefield secured the second spot on the list as the most baby-friendly city, after Bath, here's why:

The average cost of childcare per month in Wakefield is £860, there are 21 child-friendly restaurants per 10,000 people, the city has a pram-friendly score of 6.14 out of 10 and the overall safety score out of 100 is 49.63.

For those worried about the pennies adding up, the price of childcare per month may be the all-deciding factor on where you choose to raise a family.

If you asked most people how much they pay for daycare you’d likely get the same answer… too much. More and more parents are being forced to become stay at home mothers and fathers because childcare is just too expensive. However, if you choose the right city, it doesn’t have to be.

The cheapest city for childcare in the UK is Leicester, where it will cost you just £470 a month, that’s almost half the UK average! Although it places 26th in our overall ranking, with only 350 households with children and eight child-friendly attractions per 10,000 people.

Following closely behind with the second most affordable UK childcare is Plymouth, where it will cost £500 a month on average. It takes the 18th spot on our list, thanks to its high safety rating and number of child-friendly attractions by population. And with over 560 households with children per 10,000 people, Plymouth has a large community of families for new parents looking to socialise.

To discover the most pram-friendly city in the UK, we created an index to rank each city by the number of pram-accessible parks, shops, toilets with baby-changing facilities and children’s play areas per 10,000 residents. With the highest number of accessible shops and parks by population, Westminster tops this category, so you can be sure that you and your kids can easily get around.

However, there’s more to consider than trips out – The average monthly cost of childcare in Westminster is an astounding £2,133, which is by far the highest across the nation! That expense alone rules this borough out for many families when choosing where to live.

Although just around the corner from the heaps of restaurants and family households in London, Westminster ranked low for child-friendly eateries and households with children by population. Meaning those in search of variety and support might prefer to live in London, yet for parents worried about safety Westminster comes out on top.