Mole Valley, Epsom and Ewell are among the top five places to be a girl in the UK, according to a report published by a charity and a university.

The report, produced by Plan International UK in partnership with the University of Hull, was part of the charity’s ‘Because I am a Girl campaign’ launched to tackle gender inequality globally.

The campaign showed that Mole Valley ranked fourth and Epsom and Ewell ranked fifth in the national survey of local authorities across the UK.

The highest scoring area was Waverley in Surrey, while Middlesbrough was ranked the worst place to be a girl in the UK.

In Middlesbrough teenage girls were four times more likely to get pregnant than those in Waverley and there was 20 per cent more child poverty than in Epsom and Ewell.

In Mole Valley and Epsom and Ewell 69.9 and 71.5 per cent of girls received five A*-C grades at GCSE level respectively and there is an average life expectancy of 85 years.

Both areas had only 1.8 per cent of girls not in education, employment or training at the time of the report – nearly 8 per cent less than Middlesbrough.

The combination of these results ranked Mole Valley and Epsom and Ewell as on of the top of the 346 local authorities assessed.

The report was compiled using five indicators of equality: child poverty, life expectancy, teenage pregnancy rates, GCSE results and education and employment rates amongst girls.

The report also compiled a collection of interviews with girls around the UK inquiring into their experiences with sexual harassment, abuse and discrimination.

Plan International UK campaign manager Lucy Russell has said: “It is encouraging to see that girls in Surrey are doing well, generally scoring positively across the indicators we used in our research.

“Despite living in one of the most developed countries on earth, too many girls in the UK don’t enjoy their rights.”

Plan International believes there is still work to be done and has proposed a six-point plan to tackle gender inequality including mandatory sex and relationships education in schools and improving efforts to end violence against girls.