San Diego, Chula Vista Among Happiest Cities In United States: Study

SAN DIEGO COUNTY, CA – Two cities in San Diego County were recently ranked among the top happiest places to live in the United States by WalletHub.

With March 20 being International Day of Happiness, the personal-finance website on Monday released its rankings of the 150 largest U.S. cities, comparing them across 30 key indicators of happiness, including emotional and physical well-being, income and employment, and community and environment.

Both San Diego and Chula Vista topped the list.

San Diego ranked seventh overall, scoring well in emotional and physical well-being, and income and employment, but just 40th in community and environment, according to WalletHub. Chula Vista ranked 11th, with high marks in emotional and physical well-being, and community and environment.

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. According to WalletHub, the "most unhappy" cities are Detroit, Michigan; Cleveland, Ohio; Augusta, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; and Toledo, Ohio.

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.

City News Service contributed to this report.

Image by SD Dirk via flickr.com, used under Creative Commons