HAPPIEST CITIES ON THE PLANET

Each year since 2019, the London-based Institute for the Quality of Life has released its Happy City Index.  Studying cities worldwide, the Institute examines the mental health, safety, nutrition, and “work-life balance” of each.  Points are then awarded — 0-200 — in six categories:  Citizens, Economy, Governance, Health, Environment, and Mobility. What — nothing about Food? Soccer? Scarcity of Tourists?

Crunching the numbers, the Institute ranks cities by their total score, forming groups of Gold, Silver, and Bronze.  The three metals account for the top 200 cities.  Below that, into cities of iron and perhaps lead, you don’t want to go.

More surprising than the winners are the cities whose reputation exceeds their exuberance.  Rome, for rexample, ranks just 116, well behind Baltimore (84) and Nashville (96).  (Neither history, architecture, nor cappuccino make anyone happy, apparently.)  Istanbul comes in 127, Boston 131 (depending on how the Red Sox are doing).  Compare that to Columbus, Ohio (63) and Cork, Ireland (69).  Prague finished 153rd, and the lovely Edinburgh finished 161st. 

Hmmm. . . Is Seattle (80) really happier than Toronto (160)?  What does San Diego (34) know about happiness that Tokyo (42) forgot?

As for happy countries based on these rankings, Denmark topped the list with four gold and three silver cities among the top seventy-five.  The US was next with two gold (New York and Minneapolis) and five silver (San Diego, DC, Salt Lake City, Columbus, and LA).  Belgium had six ranking cities and the Netherlands five.  Finland, the perpetual winner in assorted World’s Happiest Countries rankings, had just two cities, so it must be simply ecstatic to live in the Finnish countryside.

The envelope please. . .

  1. Copenhagen, Denmark (above)

  2. Zurich, Switzerland

  3. Singapore, Singapore

  4. Aarhus, Denmark

  5. Antwerp, Belgium

  6. Seoul, South Korea

  7. Stockholm, Sweden

  8. Taipei, Taiwan

  9. Munich, Germany

  10. Rotterdam, The Netherlands

  11. Vancouver, Canada

  12. Vienna, Austria

  13. Paris, France

  14. Helsinki, Finland

  15. Aalborg, Denmark

  16. Berlin, Germany

  17. New York City, USA

  18. Dresden, Germany

  19. Brussels, Belgium

  20. Geneva, Switzerland