FILE – The Apple Park spacecraft campus is seen from this drone view in Sunnyvale, Calif., on Oct. 21, 2019. (Photo by Jane Tyska/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)
Where are the “happiest” places in America? Many of them are in Californiaand the top 10 all have high marriage rates, according to a recently published study.
The research, led by financial technology company SmartAsset, analyzed government data available in more than 160 of the nation’s largest cities. He ranked the level of “happiness” based on various measures in three categories: personal finances, well-being and quality of life.
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The study found that six California cities were in the top 10, with the northern city of Sunnyvale being the city where Americans are happiest. The company said California cities on its list were ranked higher for having lower percentages of people living in poverty, higher marriage rates and lower violent crime rates.
According to the results, high marriage rates were a common theme in America’s happiest cities. In all but one of the top 10 cities, Arlington, Virginia, married residents made up the majority of the population. Frisco, Texas, which ranked No. 5 overall, had the highest marriage rate in the study at 62.6%.
On the other end of the happiness spectrum, Birmingham, Alabama made it into the bottom five on SmartAsset’s list – based on metrics like personal bankruptcy filings per capita, life expectancy and the percentage of residents living in poverty.
Newark, New Jersey, and Memphis, Tennessee followed as the second and third happiest cities, according to the study.
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How the study ranked where Americans are “happiest”
To find where Americans are happiest, SmartAsset said it analyzed the 200 largest cities, 164 of which had federal and local government data. It focused on 13 measures divided into three categories:
- Personal finance: Percentage of people earning $100,000 or more, cost of living as a percentage of income, personal bankruptcy filings, and down payment to income ratio.
- Welfare: Percentage reporting days of poor mental health, life expectancy, physical activity rate, and percentage of adults with health insurance.
- Quality of life: Percentage of adults living below the poverty line, marriage rate, commuting time (minutes), concentration of restaurant, bar and entertainment businesses and violent crime rate.
Top 10 places where Americans are happiest, according to SmartAsset research
1. Sunnyvale, CA: Sunnyvale, one of the major cities in California’s Silicon Valley, had the highest percentage of individuals earning $100,000 or more (62.5%), according to the study. It also had the third lowest percentage of adults living below the poverty line (about 5%) and the fifth highest marriage rate (56.8%). Violent crime in the region was also low (#9) with approximately 149 violent crimes per 100,000 population.
2. Arlington, Virginia: According to the results, about 48% of Arlington residents earned $100,000 or more (#5). This, while the cost of living represented less than 35% of median household income. The county in which Arlington is located was also found to have the lowest number of personal bankruptcy filings, according to the study.
3. Bellevue, Washington: Bellevue scored highest in the quality of living category, but also did well for residents’ personal finances. Specifically, about 61% of Bellevue residents earned $100,000 or more (#2) and less than 8% of the population lived below the poverty line, according to the study. Additionally, the cost of living as a percentage of income was the lowest in the study at 28.69%.
4. Fremont, California: Fremont ranked third in the study for both its high percentage of people earning $100,000 or more (55.4%) and its low cost of living relative to income (32.17%), depending on the results. The city also ranked second for the percentage of adults living below the poverty line and for its marriage rate.
5. Frisco, TX: Frisco, Texas took first place for both the marriage rate (62.6%) and the percentage of residents living below the poverty line (2.5%). The city also ranked second in the study for its typical cost of living relative to median household income (29.55%) and violent crime rate (about 86 crimes per 100,000 people), according to results.
6. Plano, TX: Plano ranked in the top 20 on six metrics, including the fourth highest marriage rate (56.9%) and the 10th lowest violent crime rate (about 155 per 100,000 population), according to the study. Just over a third of Plano’s population earned $100,000 or more, and the typical cost of living was 40.43% of the city’s median household income.
7. Roseville, California: The cost of living in Roseville, located about 20 miles outside of Sacramento, was found to be the fifth lowest in the study and was about a third of the median household income per year. According to the results, just over 38% of the city’s population earned $100,000 or more (13th highest) and less than 6% lived below the poverty line (fourth lowest). Placer County, in which Roseville is located, also had the 15th lowest number of personal bankruptcy filings in the study.
8. San Jose, California: About 43% of San Jose residents earned $100,000 or more (10th highest) and less than 7.4% lived in poverty (eighth lowest). Additionally, Santa Clara County — where San Jose is located — took second place for the percentage of residents reporting days of poor mental health (10 percent) and life expectancy (84.7 years).
9. Santa Clarita, CA: The city ranked first in the quality of living category, taking eighth place, according to the results. Specifically, less than 7% of the city’s population lived in poverty (ranked sixth) and about 53% of residents were married (ranked 10). The area also had the seventh lowest violent crime rate across the study (about 131 crimes per 100,000 population).
10. Irvine, CA: This Southern California city ranked in the top 10 for percentage of individuals earning $100,000 or more (nearly 46%) and cost of living as a percentage of income (about 38%), according to the results. Irvine also had the lowest violent crime rate in the study (51 crimes per 100,000 population). Additionally, Orange County, in which Irvine is located, also ranked #10 for percentage of residents reporting days of poor mental health (11.3) and life expectancy (82.8). years), according to the study.
Click here to see the top 50 ranked cities.
Tips for a happier financial life
Budget: SmartAsset said creating and managing a budget can help families live more comfortably and save more money.
Anticipate your retirement: Planning for financial happiness in the future should start now, SmartAsset said. Learn about the different retirement accounts that exist and use a retirement calculator to visualize progress over the coming years.
Working with a Financial Advisor: A financial advisor can help individuals plan ahead to achieve their financial goals.
This story was reported from Cincinnati.