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Move over Disneyland. It’s actually Fremont that ranks as the happiest place — if not on the entire earth, then at least in the United States.
The Alameda County city came in at No. 1 in a new report ranking Happiest Cities in America in 2022. The report, conducted annually by the personal finance website WalletHub, compared 182 of the largest U.S. cities in 30 “key indicators of happiness,” including instances of depression, average income growth and leisure time spent per day.
“Location plays a hand in how bright or gloomy our days are,” according to the study. “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. However, money can only make you so happy — people who make $75,000 a year won’t get any higher satisfaction from more money. Consider also the fact that while the U.S. is one of the richest countries, it ranks only 14th on the World Happiness Report.”
The Bay Area was overall well represented, holding down three of top five spots on the list. Joining in Fremont in the upper echelon were San Francisco and San Jose, which placed at Nos. 3 and 4 respectively.
Other Bay Area/NorCal cities to make the list included:
14) Santa Rosa
16) Oakland
49) Sacramento
101) Modesto
stock Wix photo