Nowhere are Americans living, laughing and loving more than these metropolitan areas.
A new report has ranked the 20 happiest cities in the US — and the findings show a stark contrast between the satisfaction levels on the East versus West Coast.
According to a study by Miami-based personal finance company WalletHub — which analyzed the nation’s 180 largest cities based on such measures of contentment as sports participation, work hours and income growth — the San Francisco Bay Area city of Fremont is the merriest in the land.
The 227,000-some person California metropolis had the highest indicators of happiness across 29 key measures, including the lowest separation and divorce rates, the third lowest depression rates and the highest share of households with an income over $75,000.
“Studies have shown that increasing your income also increases your happiness up to $75,000 but not beyond,” WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe said. “Therefore, cities where a lot of people make at least $75,000 per year are more likely to have maximized their happiness.”
Taking the silver for America’s second happiest urban area is Overland Park, Kansas, which is a populous suburb of Kansas City, Missouri — and has the nation’s lowest poverty rate (4.2%).
