Santa Cruz is a pretty happy place. In fact, it’s happier than most major cities and towns in the U.S., ranking 14th overall. That was the finding of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which was released yesterday. To be fair, there are happier places, like Honolulu or Holland, Michigan (huh?), but when it comes to the residents’ emotional well-being, it’s much better to be in Santa Cruz than in, say, Huntington, West Virginia (which, for some strange reason, came in last). In fact, Santa Cruz ranked higher than the perennial happy spots like Raleigh and Minneapolis. It did not, however, beat out D.C., which goes to show that there’s a certain joy that can only be found in screwing over the rest of the country.
The Gallup-Healthways poll was based on telephone interviews with over 350,000 people. The factors investigated were job opportunities (surprise, surprise), personal finances, physical health, moods, emotional well-being, and expectations for the future—we’re a pretty optimistic bunch.
The number one location in the nation is Boulder, Colorado, with its low unemployment (only 5.7 percent, compared to the national average of 9.7) and an extensive greenbelt. Other towns in California also did well too, with Santa Rosa and Santa Barbara edging out San Jose to take the fifth, sixth, and seventh spots respectively. Oxnard-Ventura rounded out California’s overwhelming presence in the top ten. With four towns and cities in the top ten, along with Santa Cruz (14th) and San Francisco (20th), California is home to six out of the nation’s top 20 locations.
The state itself didn’t fare quite as well though, coming in at 18th in a tie with South Dakota. The happiest states across the nation were Utah, Montana, and Minnesota, followed by Iowa, Vermont, Colorado, and Alaska. This could lead to the incontrovertible conclusion that Santa Cruz could use more snow.
Read More in the Huffington Post.
Read More in USA Today.
