In honor of International Day of Happiness (March 20), WalletHub set out to discover which United States cities are the happiest. In order to determine where people in America are most content with their lives, WalletHub compared more than 180 of the largest U.S. cities across 31 key indicators of happiness. According to this data, here are the top 10 happiest cities in the U.S.:
10) Santa Rosa, CA
9) Cedar Rapids, Iowa
8) Columbia, Maryland
7) Lincoln, Nebraska
6) South Burlington, VT
5) San Jose, California
4) Madison, WI
3) Fargo, ND
2) Bismarck, ND
1) Fremont, California
WalletHub uncovered some key facts that contributed to these cities being named the happiest in the United States. For example, San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont, California all have the lowest depression rate out of every city in the country. In addition to low depression rates, the happiest city in the country, Fremont, also has the lowest separation and divorce rate at 9.21 percent, which is 4.4 times lower than in Cleveland, the city with the highest at 40.77 percent.
Another contributing factor is how much sleep residents of each city are getting. South Burlington, Vermont, has the lowest share of adults sleeping less than 7 hours per night at 28.50 percent, which is 1.8 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 51.40 percent. Another factor that played into the study was the average commute time. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, residents have the lowest average commute time—14.30 minutes, which is 2.9 times lower than in New York, the city with the highest at 41.50 minutes.
Did your city make the list?
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