Country-dwellers often say the constant noise, traffic and crowds of the city would drive them mad.

Well, they might be right, according to the latest research.

City residents are more likely to develop mental illnesses such as schizophrenia than those who live in rural areas, a study has found.

Researchers from Cardiff University examined the lifestyles of more than 200,000 people in Sweden and found that those who lived in urban areas were more at risk from psychosis than people who lived in villages.

The experts don't know exactly why this is but they suggest that town and city residents are more likely to be ostracised by those around them.

They are more likely to experience discrimination if they do not fit in, which can lead to them feeling anxious and even developing mental illnesses.

Dr Stanley Zammit, who lead the research published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, said: 'The clearest geographic pattern within this distribution of rates is that urban areas have a higher incidence of schizophrenia than rural areas.'

He also added that people living in towns and cities were more likely to develop other mental illnesses that result in personality changes - a condition known as non-affective psychosis. It is not the first time statistics have shown that country life is healthier.

Earlier this year an official report found that village dwellers lived an average of two years longer than those living in towns and cities.

According to figures from the Office of National Statistics, men who live in the country are likely to live for between 78 and 79 years, while those in towns can expect to survive to an age of 76.

Women on average survive to their 81st birthday in towns, but live to between 82 and 83 in the country.

The small market town of Wimborne Minster in rural Dorset was named the healthiest place to live.

(Read by Renee Haines. Renee Haines is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.)

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(Agencies)