A survey ranking 1,000 shopping districts has put Nottingham as the 54th best in Britain.
The 2019 Vitality Index from retail property consultancy Harper Dennis Hobbs looks at the retail health of a shopping area based on the proportion of upmarket and discount stores, and vacancy rates.
It also takes into consideration the number of less aspirational tenants, such as pawnbrokers, money lenders and bookmakers.
Elsewhere in the list, Newark was in position 359, while Mansfield came in at number 594.
Nottingham was still the best-ranked city in the East Midlands, ahead of Leicester at 160 and Derby at 187.
Jonathan De Mello, head of retail consultancy at Harper Dennis Hobbs, said: “The Vitality Ranking is a unique approach to assessing retail centres.
"By scoring centres based upon a number of aspects that both retailers and shoppers think of when they consider a quality retail environment, HDH provide a different perspective to rankings based solely on size or total sales.
Mike Ashley's Sport Direct considers £61.4m bid for Debenhams
“The changing face of the high street means retailers need to be confident their investment is likely to pay off. Quality retailers don’t want to be surrounded by empty units, discount stores and betting shops, which are a clear indicator of deprivation in the area."
In the list, the suitability to the local shopper is a key factor.
It means that the presence of low-end retailers is not necessarily a bad thing, as long as the local area consists largely of residents that prioritise value for money.
Cambridge – which also took first place in 2017 when the last Vitality Index was published – was named as the most vital retail centre.
London performed well, with seven of the top 10 retail centres located in the capital. They include the West End, along with the office worker-orientated Canary Wharf and smaller affluent suburbs such as Richmond.
Taking the title of least vital shopping destination for a second time was Shields Road in Byker, Newcastle, followed by Stretford in Greater Manchester and Kirkby in Merseyside.
Small towns and neighbourhoods overwhelmingly dominate the bottom end of the list – only four of the bottom 50 retail centres have more than 300 shops, whereas more than half of the top 50 do.
New shared office and events space to open up in historic Lace Market building
The redevelopment of Nottingham's Boots Island site is finally going to happen
