It’s no surprise that where you live can impact your quality of life. But can the actual city you choose to reside in really influence your happiness? It very well could.
New findings from WalletHub identified the happiest cities in the U.S, along with characteristics that may influence happiness.
To help identify the happiest cities, WalletHub compared 182 of the largest cities in the U.S. across 3 key categories of characteristics:
1) Emotional and physical well being – life satisfaction, physical health, depression rate, etc
2) Income and employment – income, job security and satisfaction, commute time, etc
3) Community and environment – ideal weather, average leisure time, hate crime incidents, etc
These categories were evaluated using 29 weighted metrics of which each was graded on a 100-point scale, with 100 representing maximum happiness. Each city’s weighted average was then determined across all metrics to create their overall score.
So what did they find? Interestingly enough, but again, not surprising, results showed that West Coast cities (and those beyond) dominated rankings, making up 50% of the Top 20 Happiest Cities, and the percentage increased to 60% among the Top 10. See the Top 20 Happiest U.S. Cities below or read the full list and findings at WalletHub.
Top 20 Happiest Cities in the U.S. (by WalletHub)
- Fremont, CA – 74.16
- Overland Park, KS – 69.78
- San Jose, CA – 69.54
- Madison, WI – 68.99
- Irvine, CA – 68.22
- Honolulu, HI – 68.03
- San Francisco, CA – 67.01
- Pearl City, HI – 66.90
- Columbia, MD – 65.77
- Scottsdale, AZ – 65.26
- Sioux Falls, SD – 65.06
- Huntington Beach, CA – 64.28
- Minneapolis, MN – 63.98
- Garden Grove, CA- 63.91
- San Diego, CA – 63.75
- Fargo, ND – 63.68
- Portland, ME – 63.46
- Seattle, WA – 63.69
- Lincoln, NE – 63.35
- Bismarck, ND – 63.23
It’s hard to say if actually living in one of these top cities will make you happier or if it is just an exaggerated correlation; however, if you’re looking to settle somewhere new, it’s worth a shot!
Ciao and Happy Travels!
Jennifer
