The Happiest Cities in America?

How can you judge how happy a city is? Recently, a personal finance website, WalletHub, analyzed and ranked the largest 180 cities in the country.  Some of the factors that determined their results were: emotional and physical well-being, income and employment, and community environment. 

Before giving you the top ten of the list, here are a few I was surprised at:

# 15 San Diego, CA.

# 22 Charleston, SC.

#39 Yonkers, NY.

#50 Washington, DC.

#55 Jersey City, NJ.

#86 New York, NY.

#126 Newark, NJ

And these are the top ten happiest cities in the country:

#10 Scottsdale, Arizona

They have mountains, a desert, a very large cultural downtown, and I'm sure some hot weather.

#9 Columbia, Maryland

Twenty minutes from Baltimore, it is suburban and charming.

#8 Pearl City, Hawaii

Pictured above, it has Pearl Harbor and the lowest depression rate in the country.

#7 San Francisco, CA

One of the most visited cities, one of the friendliest, and a place where there is a lot to do and see.

#6 Honolulu, Hawaii

It's ranked number 1 in community and environment and it has the famous Waikiki Beach.

#5 Irvine, CA.

It's in the well-known Orange County and is only 14 miles from Disneyland, how could they not be happy?

#4 Madison, Wisconsin

I've always heard great things about this college town. They somehow have 270 parks and 270,000 people, which is a park for every 1,000 people?

#3 San Jose, California

It has the longest life expectancy, one of the lowest separation and divorce rates, and 300 days of sunshine. That's a lot of sunshine.

#2 Overland, Kansas

They have the lowest poverty rate at 4.2% and my wife and I have been there several times on our trips to and from Colorado. They are only 12 miles from Kansas City and Joe's Barbecue which we have eaten at many, many times.

#1 Freemont, California

It has the highest household income over $75,000 and the lowest separation and divorce rate-not a bad view below either.