14 DAY TRIAL // Earlier this week, specialist Joshua Gottlieb with the University of British Columbia in Canada and fellow researchers released this map documenting the happiest and the least joyful places in the US.
The map is color coded. Thus, the regions in bright red are the ones where area happiness is at its lowest. The regions in blue, on the other hand, are the ones where folks are quite at ease with the world and themselves.
Not at all surprisingly, Joshua Gottlieb and colleagues say that, as far as they can tell, it is people who live in declining cities that are most likely to complain about being unhappy with their life.
What's interesting is that, as depressing as this map shows several regions in the US to be, quite a lot of people appear to be ready and willing to move to these areas, provided that this brings them some financial benefits.
Simply put, the researchers say that, if presented with a good job opportunity or lower housing prices, many would not hesitate to move to parts of the country where area happiness is fairly low.
“Our research indicates that people care about more than happiness alone, so other factors may encourage them to stay in a city despite their unhappiness,” Joshua Gottlieb says in a statement.
Furthermore, “This means that researchers and policy-makers should not consider an increase in reported happiness as an overriding objective.”
Check out the lists below to get a better idea of how happiness is distributed across the US.
Top 10 happiest metropolitan areas with a population greater than 1 million (as of 2010):
1. Richmond-Petersburg, VA 2. Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, VA 3. Washington, DC 4. Raleigh-Durham, NC 5. Atlanta, GA 6. Houston, TX 7. Jacksonville, FL 8. Nashville, TN 9. West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL 10. Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon, NJ
Top 10 unhappiest metropolitan areas with a population greater than 1 million (as of 2010):
1. New York, NY 2. Pittsburgh, PA 3. Louisville, KY 4. Milwaukee, WI 5. Detroit, MI 6. Indianapolis, IN 7. St. Louis, MO 8. Las Vegas, NV 9. Buffalo, NY 10. Philadelphia, PA
US metropolitan areas with the highest reported happiness:
1. Charlottesville, VA 2. Rochester, MN 3. Lafayette, LA 4. Naples, FL 5. Baton Rouge, LA 6. Flagstaff, AZ 7. Shreveport, LA 8. Houma, LA 9. Corpus Christi, TX 10. Provo, UT
The least happy American regions are:
1. Scranton, PA 2. St. Joseph, MO 3. Erie, PA 4. South Bend, IN 5. Jersey City, NJ 6. Johnstown, PA 7. Non-metropolitan West Virginia 8. Springfield, MA 9. New York, NY 10. Evansville-Henderson, IN-KY