Fremont Tops List Of Happiest Places To Live In America

FREMONT, CA — Fremont has been chosen as the happiest city in America, according to research by WalletHub, because it is one of America's least stressed cities and the second-best place to raise a family, it's ranked fifth as the most caring city in the U.S, and it's the city with the lowest separation and divorce rate.

WalletHub released its annual list last week and four of the top five cities are in California. The company compared 182 large cities and looked at 30 metrics such as a city's divorce and suicide rates, opioid prescriptions, income growth, life expectancy and job opportunities.

So, according to WalletHub, Fremont is the happiest place in America. Columbia, Maryland comes in at number two followed by San Francisco, San Jose and Irvine to round out the top five happiest cities.

WalletHub turned to Chip Espinoza, Interim Provost, Dean of Strategy & Innovation at Vanguard University of Southern California to understand how much happiness is affected by where you live.

"I believe it has a huge impact," Espinoza said. "Long commutes and traffic are happiness killers. I hope that COVID has taught us that our workforce can be productive in a virtual or flex schedule."

Among the rest of the 30 factors that WalletHub considered in its search for happiness were physical health, depression rates, sleep rates, sports participation, vaccination rates, life expectancy, drug use, job security, unemployment, bankruptcy rates, weekly work hours, commute times, daily leisure time, and weather. By these standards, San Bernardino is a happier place than New Orleans.

In all, 29 California cities made the happiest cities list.

They are ranked:

• Fremont: 1
• San Francisco: 3
• San Jose: 4
• Irvine: 5
• Huntington Beach: 9
• San Diego: 10
• Santa Rosa: 14
• Santa Clarita: 15
• Oakland: 16
• Glendale: 18
• Anaheim: 20
• Oxnard: 23
• Garden Grove: 24
• Chula Vista: 25
• Oceanside: 33
• Santa Ana: 38
• Sacramento: 49
• Los Angeles: 54
• Long Beach: 60
• Rancho Cucamonga: 71
• Ontario: 96
• Fontana: 99
• Modesto: 101
• Moreno Valley: 102
• Riverside: 104
• Stockton: 122
• Fresno: 123
• Bakersfield: 126
• San Bernardino: 153

See the full report on WalletHub.