(KRON) — WalletHub published its annual rankings of the happiest cities in America on Tuesday, and for the third straight year, Fremont took home the top spot on the list. San Jose and San Francisco also cracked the list’s top 10.
WalletHub ranked 182 American cities in three categories to compile its list — emotional and physical well-being, income and employment, and community and environment.
Fremont did supremely well in two categories — it was ranked first in emotional and physical well-being and third in community and environment. In income and employment, it ranked No. 85.
WalletHub used these categories to come up with a score for each city. Fremont’s score of 74.16 towered over the other cities ranked. View the list’s top 10 below, including the happiness score:
- Fremont, CA (74.16)
- Overland Park, KS (69.78)
- San Jose, CA (69.54)
- Madison, WI (68.99)
- Irvine, CA (68.22)
- Honolulu, HI (68.03)
- San Francisco, CA (67.01)
- Pearl City, HI (66.90)
- Columbia, MD (65.77)
- Scottsdale, AZ (65.26)
Other Bay Area cities ranked on the list were Oakland (No. 26) and Santa Rosa (No. 29).
According to WalletHub, Fremont and San Jose have some of the lowest depression rates nationwide, helping with their lofty rankings. Oakland was No. 5 in income growth, while Fremont had the best separation and divorce rates.
Methodology
WalletHub chose its 182 cities by taking the 150 most-populated U.S. cities and at least two of the most populated cities in every state.
Within the three main categories (emotional & physical well-being, income & employment, community & environment) WalletHub used 29 metrics, including depression rate, poverty rate and hate crime incidents per capita. The metrics were weighted to come up with a happiness score.
