TAMPA, Fla. — A new study reports that St. Petersburg ranks in the top 40 happiest cities in the United States.
SmartAsset evaluated 90 of the largest cities across the country with 11 variables spanning personal finance, well-being and quality of life.
St. Petersburg ranked 34. It was listed that there are about five days of mentally unhealthy days every month for residents, and the life expectancy is about 78 years old.
Tampa ranked in at 55 with about the same amount of mentally unhealthy days per month and a life expectancy of about 79.
The No. 1 happiest city was listed as Arlington, Virginia, where more than half of the households there earn more than $100,000 the number of unhealthy days per month is 3.8 and the life expectancy is about 85.
Plano in Texas, Fremont and San Jose in California and Seattle in Washington were in the top five.
On the other end, Detroit, Michigan came in as the least happy city with 5.6 mentally unhealthy days per month and a life expectancy of 74.
SmartAsset also listed other factors for the most and least happy cities such as the poverty rate, housing cost burden, population not getting physical activity, marriage rate and overcrowding rate, among others.
Some of the other findings were California has some of the happiest residents with three cities making the top 10. Alaska and Hawaii also have the best self-reported mental health with their cities having the least amount of mentally unwell days. Seattle residents also reportedly get the most exercise.
The data used for this study came from the U.S. Census Bureau's 1-year American Community Survey for 2022 and County Health Rankings and Roadmaps for 2023.
Looking at a worldwide perspective, the U.S. was not in the top 20 of the happiest countries in the World Happiness Report. This was the first time in the report's 12-year history that America hasn't been in the top 20.
One of the main reasons for the drop is the overall unhappiness of younger people, according to the report. The results of the report are based on self-assessments from people in more than 140 countries.
