Montgomery 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 second straight year, Montgomery County has landed itself on the list.

The recent survey from SmartAsset ranked Montgomery County as the 25th happiest place in the nation. That's nearly maintaining their ranking of 23rd from 2016.

Montgomery County holds a low unemployment rate of 3.8 percent, a high physical activity rate of 59.7 percent, and a life expectancy of nearly 81 years.

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 Chester County was the only other county in Pennsylvania to sneak onto the top 25 list, coming in at seventh 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