Irvine Named Third Happiest City in America

Location plays a hand in how bright or gloomy our days are. For years, researchers have studied the science of happiness and found that its key ingredients include a positive mental state, healthy body, strong social connections, job satisfaction and financial well-being.

According to a recently published study, our City’s residents are among the happiest in the nation. In fact, Irvine earned the No. 3 spot in WalletHub’s Happiest Cities in America ranking.

Analysts from WalletHub examined 29 key indicators of happiness — ranging from the depression rate to the income-growth rate to average leisure time spent per day — among residents in more than 180 of the largest cities across the country.

The study found that the majority of Irvine residents have a remarkably positive mental state, good physical health, low divorce rate, longer life expectancy, strong social connections, high job satisfaction, and financial well-being.

An impressive 88% of adults in Irvine report good or better health (third-highest nationwide), and nearly 84% stay active with regular physical activities. Irvine was ranked as having the seventh-highest life expectancy, the third-lowest rate of poor mental health days, the third lowest divorce rate in the nation, and the eighth-lowest depression rate.

Two other California cities were ranked among the happiest, with Fremont taking the top spot followed by San Jose. (San Jose beat out Irvine by just 0.02 points.)

Other California cities to make it into the Top 10 included San Francisco at No. 9 and Huntington Beach at No. 10.

To read more about the study, click here.