Supporting a local team can be seen as a mark of credibility among a certain kind of football fan. Not following a local team, by contrast, can be associated with “glory hunting”.
But which Premier League clubs have the highest – and lowest – proportion of supporters living close to home? Using data from YouGov Profiles, we analysed the fanbases of all 20 top-flight clubs for the 2026-27 season, and found that, with 56% of fans based in the South East, Brighton & Hove Albion is the league’s most local side.
Sunderland (50%) and Nottingham Forest (49%) supporters are next-most likely to live in the same region as their teams, followed by Villa (46%), Brentford (46%), Ipswich (46%), Leeds (46%), Fulham (45%) and Hull (45%) fans.
At the other end of the table, Liverpool is the club with the lowest proportion of “local” supporters: just a fifth are based in the North West (21%). The next highest concentration of Reds fans can be found in London (15%). Manchester United has the second-lowest proportion of local supporters. A quarter are based in the North West (23%), with one in six (17%) living in the capital.
Tottenham fans rank third-bottom, with a quarter based in the capital (26%). However, this should possibly be placed in a wider context: a fifth of Spurs fans are based in the South East (19%) or the East of England (19%), which the London region shares borders with. Similar patterns can be observed with other London-based clubs. Chelsea fans, for example, have a fifth (20%) of fans based in the South East, while Arsenal have 17% and 13% based in the South East and the East of England respectively.
There are similar cases with Premier League clubs outside of London that are located close to another county: Bournemouth, for example, used to be part of the South East county of Hampshire before being absorbed into Dorset (in the South West). Today, 42% of AFC Bournemouth fans are based in the South West, but some 25% live in the South East.
Finally, Manchester City, the most successful team of the modern era, rank fourth-bottom for local fans. A quarter of the club’s supporters are based in the North West, with a fifth based in London (19%).
YouGov Profiles is based on continuously collected data through rolling surveys, rather than a single limited questionnaire. Figures are drawn from responses collected ausing a 52-week dataset updated weekly. Data is nationally representative of adults (18+) in Great Britain and weighted by age, gender, region, education, and social grade.