Happiest Cities List Features Two Texas Cities

The Declaration of Independence talks about the “pursuit of happiness,” but you may not realize how many locations can affect your happiness. A new report on the happiest cities in the U.S. from personal finance website Wallethub could help you figure out where to go to be content.

Plano, Texas took the top spot on the list, followed by Irvine, California, and the Midwestern city of Madison, Wisconsin. Two sunny California cities took the fourth and fifth place spots – Fremont and Huntington Beach, respectively. Detroit landed at the bottom of the list as the 182nd happiest city in America, and Chicago did not even break the top 100, taking the 107th spot.

Researchers at WalletHub drew upon the various findings of positive-psychology research and compared more than 180 of America’s biggest cities to determine which one is home to the happiest people in America. Each city was examined under 31 key indicators of ranging from depression rate to income-growth rate to average leisure time spent per day.

The Top 10 Happiest Cities:

1. Plano, TX
2. Irvine, CA
3. Madison, WI
4. Fremont, CA
5. Huntington Beach, CA
6. Fargo, ND
7. Grand Prairie, TX
8. San Jose, CA
9. Scottsdale, AZ
10. San Francisco, CA

The Top 10 Least Happiest Cities

• Detroit, MI
• Toledo, OH
• Charleston, WV
• Birmingham, AL
• Cleveland, OH
• Gulfport, MS
• Little Rock, AR
• 175 Huntington, WV
• Newark, NJ
• Mobile, AL