Downers Grove Among 50 Happiest Small Places in America

Downers Grove is one of the happiest small cities in the country, according to a list by Movoto Real Estate Blog.

Ranked No. 41, Downers Grove scored among the top 15 places for safety. It also had high marks for education and the number of married people, though the city has lower income and fewer home owners than some of the other happiest cities.

State College, PA, took the No. 1 spot, but other Illinois towns, such as Elmhurst and Oak Lawn, also made the list.

Methodology

The list compliers at the Movoto Real Estate Blog gathered the places in the U.S. that had a population between 61,000 and 40,000 people.

They collected data for seven criteria, using the 2010 U.S. Census, the 2012 FBI /Uniform Crime Report, and WalkScore.com.

• Stress factors (including unemployment, commutes, and cost of living)
• Personal safety (violent crimes per 100,000 people)
• Percent of residents making greater than $25,000/year
• Percent of married residents
• Home ownership
• Percent of residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher
• Walkability score

They omitted places without data, which left 391 different places. They ranked each place in each category from one to 391, with scores closer to one being better.

Then they averaged each place’s rankings into one Big Deal Score, with lower-numbered scores being happier.

Here are Downers Grove’s scores, according to the blog (lower score is better)
Stress Factors Rank: 245
Safety Rank: 12
Income Rank: 329
Marriage Rank: 51
Home Ownership Rank: 300
Education Rank: 41
Walkability Rank: 100
Big Deal Score: 154