The Isles of Scilly have been named as the friendliest place in England as part of a major study into social division across Britain.

All 296 local authority areas have been ranked in a new index using government data from the community life survey, measuring how often people chat to neighbours, feelings of loneliness and belonging, local pride, and levels of participation in civic life.

Scilly was followed by South Hams in south Devon, West Devon, Derbyshire Dales and Richmond upon Thames.

The area named the least friendly in England was Barking and Dagenham. The remaining areas in the bottom five were Stoke-on-Trent, Ashfield, Mansfield and Ipswich.

The index is intended to encourage people to share how their experience compares with the data, as part of the National Conversation, an engagement project that has already captured what thousands of British people think unites and divides us.

The views collected in the survey will inform a report later this year by the Independent Commission on Community and Cohesion, which was set up to tackle what it describes as “the converging crises of social disconnection and division” in the UK.

Co-chaired by the former Tory home secretary Sajid Javid and the former Labour policy coordinator Jon Cruddas, the commission says its mission is to better understand the country’s state of connection and cohesion and create a shared vision for how we can live well together.

The foreword from its first report published last year said that “communal life in Britain is under threat” as a result of declining community infrastructure and institutions, weaker family units, growing inequality, dwindling trust in institutions and chronic neglect from policymakers.

The report also identifies current threats that are turning social disconnection into something more dangerous, including the mismanagement of immigration, cost of living pressures and social media-driven extremism.

The result, the commission says, is that the UK is “sitting on a tinderbox of disconnection and division”.

Cruddas, who used to be the MP for Dagenham, said: “This index is designed to get us talking. And I nearly choked on my cornflakes when my old area came rock bottom.

“I think government stats miss a lot of what really makes an area tick, including my old town. But that’s why we have developed it, to spark a conversation – because what we really want is your view on your area.”

The National Conversation survey is open until the end of August.