The Rochdale feelgood index: can you judge a town's wellbeing from tweets?

A boomtown of the Industrial Revolution, it now uses machine learning to gauge the residents' emotional state

When Rochdale is in the news it tends to be for the wrong reasons, such as associations with child sex exploitation and urban decay. Yet, in its heyday, Rochdale was one of the most prosperous places on earth. The town hall - a magnificent example of Victorian gothic - exudes civic pride. But it was built a long time ago, when Britain was the workshop of the world, cotton was king and the north of England was more prosperous than the south.

Related: Nottingham has lowest household disposable income in UK