Happy in the city or town where you live? Think you could be happier?
A new report by Wallethub tied to the International Day of Happiness on March 20 ranks 2023’s Happiest Cities in America. And with 83 percent of American adults feeling stressed out thanks to high inflation, the personal-finance website may be onto something.
In order to determine where people living in America feel happiest (or at least most content with the current state of their lives), WalletHub compared over 180 of the largest U.S. cities, to analyze 30 key indicators of happiness including from clinical depression rates, income-growth rates, average leisure time spent per day, hate crime incidents, divorce statistics, unemployment and underemployment, and more. In many ways, the data looks for the least amount of factors that can cause unhappiness.
At the top of the list is Fremont, California, a city of about 227,514 residents in San Francisco's Bay Area. The city ranked number one for emotional and physical well-being, as well as community and environment, though it's 34th for income and employment. Fremont also has the lowest reported depression rate, 11.9 percent, which is 2.5 times lower than Huntington, West Virginia, the city with the highest at 30.1 percent of people reportedly depressed. Fremont also boasts the lowest separation and divorce rate of 9.02 percent, which is 4.6 times lower than Cleveland, the city with the highest at 41.59 percent.
The list continues to rank San Jose, California; Madison, Wisconsin; Overland Park, Kansas; San Francisco, California; Irvine, California; Columbia, Maryland; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; South Burlington, Vermont; and Burlington, Vermont as the top ten happiest cities. Burlington also ranks as the top city for income and employment, likely thanks to the city's booming tourism and agriculture industries.