Chester County Named 25th Happiest County In America, Study Says

For the third straight year, a financial advising company has put out a list of the "happiest counties" in the United States. And for the third straight year, Chester County has landed itself near the top of that list.

The recent survey from SmartAsset ranked Chester County as the seventh happiest place in the nation. That's nearly maintaining their ranking of fourth from 2016, and sixth from 2015.

Here's what the study had to say about the county:

"Chester County stays in our top 10 for a third year to show that its residents are still enjoying life very much. For one thing financial health is strong in Chester County. The personal bankruptcy rate is only 0.11%. That’s the lowest in our top 10. Chester County also has the highest median household income of all Pennsylvania counties and unemployment is down to just 3.5%. Plus the county is an active one with 62.2% of people getting their weekly exercise. The county also saw an increase in life expectancy after no increase between 2015 and 2016."

The happiest counties were shown to be on the East Coast; overall, 6 of the top 10 counties came from the Mid-Atlantic region.

Neighboring Montgomery County was the only other county in Pennsylvania to sneak onto the top 25 list, coming in at 25th overall.

SmartAsset utilized Census data from 2009 through 2014 and only considered towns with counties with more than 50,000 residents.

Their methodology focused on metrics like life expectancy, physical activity rate, income ratio, bankruptcy rate, mortgage rate, cost of living, living wage, and divorce rates and marriage rates. An overall "happiness index" was calculated from these numbers.

Fairfax County in Virginia led the way with an index of 100. Chester's was 97.16, while Montgomery's was 91.52.

Full details on the study, including methodology and rankings, can be found here.

Image 'The Hunter of Happiness' via Commons and Harry Popoff