Does Living In Seal Beach Make You Happy? You're Not Alone

HUNTINGTON BEACH, CA — Are you feeling happy just to live in Orange County? You're not alone, according to a recent survey conducted by WalletHub.

Irvine and Huntington Beach ranked among the top 10 happiest cities in the United States in a survey released Monday.

The rankings of the 150 most populous municipalities were based on a variety of data that were summed up in the categories of emotional and physical well-being, income and employment, and community and environment.

Irvine ranked third overall, while Huntington Beach placed sixth. San Diego came in seventh, while the San Diego County city of Chula Vista placed 11th, Santa Clarita took 12th, Garden Grove placed 14th, Anaheim took 18th and Glendale placed 20th.

California dominated the top of the list, with eight of the top 10 cities and 13 of the first 20.

Fremont, a Bay Area suburb located between San Jose and Oakland, was ranked first by WalletHub, followed by San Jose, Irvine, San Francisco and Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The "most unhappy" cities, according to WalletHub, are Detroit; Cleveland; Augusta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; and Toledo, Ohio.

Los Angeles didn't make the top 20, but the study noted that the city has the nation's lowest depression rate, at 9.99 percent, compared to Portland, which has the highest depression rate at 24.62 percent.
Detailed criteria included depression and suicide rates, sports participation, obesity, life expectancy, income growth, poverty, commute times, population increases, separation and divorce, weather and acres of parkland.

The data was collected from numerous sources, among them the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Feeding America, The Trust for Public Land and TripAdvisor, according to WalletHub.

Photo, courtesy Cassi Gilsper