BALTIMORE, MD—With the International Day of Happiness coming up on March 20, the personal-finance website WalletHub this week released its report on 2024’s Happiest Cities in America in an effort to find out which cities provide the best conditions for Americans’ mental and physical well being.
Columbia, MD came in at No. 10. Fremont, CA topped the list with Overland Park, KS coming in at No. 2.
To identify the happiest cities, WalletHub compared more than 180 of the largest U.S. cities across 29 key indicators of happiness. The data set ranges from the depression rate to the income-growth rate to the average leisure time spent per day.
“Money can buy happiness to a certain degree because a stable income is essential for a person’s physical and mental wellbeing,” says Cassandra Happe, WalletHub Analyst. “However, plenty of other factors affect happiness as well, and the happiest cities combine economic security with kind communities and conditions that are conducive to low depression rates and high life satisfaction.”
“Fremont, CA is the happiest city in America, and one contributing factor is that the city has the highest share of households with an income above $75,000, at nearly 80%,” Happe added. “Studies have shown that people who make at least $75,000 per year are happier than people with lower incomes. In addition, Fremont has the lowest separation and divorce rate in the country and the lowest share of adults who report having 14 or more mentally unhealthy days in the past month.”
| Top 20 Happiest Cities | ||||||
| 1. Fremont, CA | 11. Sioux Falls, SD | |||||
| 2. Overland Park, KS | 12. Huntington Beach, CA | |||||
| 3. San Jose, CA | 13. Minneapolis, MN | |||||
| 4. Madison, WI | 14. Garden Grove, CA | |||||
| 5. Irvine, CA | 15. San Diego, CA | |||||
| 6. Honolulu, HI | 16. Fargo, ND | |||||
| 7. San Francisco, CA | 17. Portland, ME | |||||
| 8. Pearl City, HI | 18. Seattle, WA | |||||
| 9. Columbia, MD | 19. Lincoln, NE | |||||
| 10. Scottsdale, AZ | 20. Bismarck, ND | |||||
Key Stats
- Pearl City, Hawaii, has the lowest depression rate, which is 2.7 times lower than in Lewiston, Maine, the city with the highest.
- Newark, New Jersey, has the lowest number of suicides per 100,000 residents, which is 7.9 times lower than in Casper, Wyoming, the city with the highest.
- Fremont, California, has the lowest separation & divorce rate, which is 4.6 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest.
- South Burlington, Vermont, has the lowest share of adults sleeping less than 7 hours per night, which is 1.9 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest.
- Missoula, Montana and Bismarck, North Dakota, have the lowest average commute time, which is 2.6 times lower than in New York, the city with the highest.
The full report can be viewed online here at WalletHub.
Photo via Pixabay
