These are the happiest cities in America, according to Care2.com (slideshow), a website which specializes in healthy living. The study was conducted by telephone surveys which evaluated 6 different categories: life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and access to basic necessities.
10 happiest cities list on Care2 (no slideshow)
The 10 Happiest Small Cities (Metro areas with less than 300,000 residents.)
1. Burlington-South Burlington, VT
2. Olympia, WA
3. Bellingham, WA
4. Bremerton-Silverdale, WA
5. Topeka, KS
6. Barnstable Town, MA
7. Charlottesville, VA
8. Kennewick-Pasco-Richland, WA
9. Medford, OR
10. Amarillo, TX
The 10 Happiest Mid-Sized Cities (Metro areas with between 300,000-1 million residents.)
1. Boulder, CO
2. Lincoln, NE
3. Fort Collins-Loveland, CO
4. Provo-Orem, UT
5. Honolulu, HI
6. Madison, WI
7. Cedar Rapids, IA
8. Gainesville, FL
9. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT
10. Peoria, IL
The 10 Happiest Large Cities (Metro areas with over 1 million residents.)
1. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
2. Austin-Round Rock, TX
3. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
4. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
5. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
6. Minneapolis-St.Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
7. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH
8. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
9. Raleigh-Cary, NC
10. Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT
The 10 happiest cities found on CNBC was similar but not identical. Like the list on Care2, this list was also based off of The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index®. I’ll just list the cities off of that site so you don’t have to click through a slideshow if you don’t want to.
- Boulder, CO
- Holland-Grand Haven, MI
- Honolulu, HI
- Provo-Orem, UT
- Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA
- Santa Barbara-Santa Maria-Goleta, CA
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
- Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va-Md-W.Va
- Ogden-Clearfield, UT
- Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA
Are people with college degrees happier?
Overall, I prefer the list on Care2 because it was more specific by listing small, medium, and large cities in separate lists. I noticed a pattern of commonalities among these lists. Many of these places are among the most educated cities in America, a lot of them are in the western united states, and near the rocky mountains where there is a lot of open space. Also notice that there aren’t any mega cities on the lists other than DC, which was the only area that is very cosmopolitan. Lets compare the list to the most educated cities in America.
These are the top 10 metro areas, by proportion of adults 25 and older with a Bachelor’s degree or above.
1 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV, 46.8 percent
2 Bridgeport, CT, 43.8 percent
3 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA, 43.5 percent
4 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA, 43.4 percent
5 Boston-Cambridge, MA-NH, 41.9 percent
6 Raleigh, NC, 41.5 percent
7 Madison, WI, 39.8 percent
8 Austin, TX, 38.2 percent
9 Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI, 37.6 percent
10 Denver-Aurora, CO, 37.5 percent
Source: Brookings
The cool thing about the source which I found this list on is that it offers an interactive tool to sort the data in different ways- Metro areas, cities, suburbs, and states. Instead of just questioning whether or not people with college degrees are happier, I think its much more relevant to ask, “Are smarter people happier?” Obviously, being smart and having a college degree go hand in hand but clearly they are two different things. However, that goes beyond the scope of this article.
I’ll wrap things up by listing the top ten happiest states as well as the ten least happiest states in the USA which was also conducted by the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index with a telephone survey in 2010. Their corresponding well being scores are shown.
1. Hawaii: 71.0
2. Wyoming: 69.2
3. North Dakota: 68.4
4. Alaska: 68.3
5. Colorado: 68.0
6. Minnesota: 68.0
7. South Dakota: 68.0
8. Utah: 67.9
9. Connecticut: 67.9
10. Nebraska, Massachusetts (tie): 67.8
The ten least happiest states according to their well being index:
51. West Virginia: 61.7
50. Kentucky: 61.9
49. Mississippi: 63.0
48. Arkansas: 63.7
47. Alabama: 63.7
46. Ohio: 63.8
45. Delaware: 64.2
44. Nevada: 64.2
43. Louisiana: 64.3
42. Michigan: 64.6
It looks like many of the happiest states are out west, have a lot of open land, and no particular generalizations can be made about weather. Almost all of the least happiest states are in the eastern half, with the exception of Nevada. Most of the least happiest states are in appalachia and the south.
To really make this article complete, I’ll list the top five most educated states as well as the least educated. It is based on the highest percentages of people who obtained a Bachelor’s degree or higher and is done by the most recent U.S. Census Bureau poll.
1) District of Columbia (48.2%)
2) Massachusetts (38.1%)
3 and 4) Connecticut and Colorado (each with 35.6%)
5) Maryland (35.2%)
The five least educated states:
1) West Virginia (17.1%)
2) Arkansas (18.8%)
3) Mississippi (19.4%)
4) Kentucky (19.7%)
5) Louisiana (20.3%)
Conclusion
The ‘happiest places’ list is kind of dubious comparing to the ‘most educated places’ list, since the latter is based off of hard facts gathered by the census and the former mentioned has to rely on some assumptions. I’ve read the criteria for similar lists which can include the rate of antidepressants for a given area. How about the people who would use antidepressants, but can’t simply because they can’t afford it? How about people who use antidepressants as ingredients for recreational drug use?
Many of the happiest places in America appear to be in the west, as well as states where the rate of education is high. It sounds quite logical for educated people to be somewhat happier on average, since they have access to more luxuries, they can afford to have better health, and they’re more likely to know what is good for them and what isn’t. I hope that this article will help bring some people a step closer to solving some of the mysteries of happiness.
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