10 FL Cities Among Happiest In America For 2021: List

FLORIDA— With the average American's stress level on the rise for the first time since 2007 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the personal-finance website WalletHub took a look at the Happiest Cities In America for 2021.

The report brought good news for residents in 10 Florida cities, which ranked among the Happiest Cities in America, according to WalletHub. In Florida, Cape Coral, Pembroke Pines, Tampa, Miami, St. Petersburg and Fort Lauderdale were among those on the list.

"Location plays a hand in how bright or gloomy our days are," WalletHub's Andrew McCann wrote. "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. ... As this study aims to illustrate, moving to a certain city may help you be more content."

In order to determine where in America people are most content with their lives, WalletHub compared more than 180 of the largest U.S. cities. WalletHub used 31 indicators ranging from depression rate to income-growth rate to average leisure time spent per day as metrics to evaluate the cities in three key categories: Emotional and Physical Well-Being; Income and Employment; and Community and Environment.

Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing maximum happiness. WalletHub determined each city's weighted average across all metrics to calculate each city's overall score and used the resulting scores to rank the cities from 1 to 182 in each of the three key categories, with 1 being the highest.

Here are 2021's Top 15 Happiest Cities in America, according to WalletHub.

1. Fremont, California
2. Bismarck, North Dakota
3. Fargo, North Dakota
4. Madison, Wisconsin
5. San Jose, California
6. South Burlington, Vermont
7. Lincoln, Nebraska
8. Columbia, Maryland
9. Cedar Rapids, Iowa
10. Santa Rosa, California
11. Sioux Falls, South Dakota
12. Irvine, California
13. San Francisco, California
14. Pearl City, Hawaii
15. Burlington, Vermont

Here is a breakdown of Cape Coral's happiness rankings:

• No. 54 for Emotional and Physical Well-Being
• No. 52 for Income and Employment
• No. 4 for Community and Environment
• Total Score: 63.23
• Overall Rank: No. 31

Here is a look at Pembroke Pines' happiness factors:

• No. 88 for Emotional and Physical Well-Being
• No. 134 for Income and Employment
• No. 7 for Community and Environment
• Total Score: 57.94
• Overall Rank: No. 65

Here are Tallahassee's happiness factors:

• No. 96 for Emotional and Physical Well-Being
• No. 43 for Income and Employment
• No. 93 for Community and Environment
• Total Score: 55.99
• Overall Rank: No. 80

Here are Tampa's happiness factors:

• No. 111 for Emotional and Physical Well-Being
• No. 58 for Income and Employment
• No. 50 for Community and Environment
• Total Score: 55.23
• Overall Rank: No. 86

Here are Fort Lauderdale's happiness factors:

• No. 99 for Emotional and Physical Well-Being
• No. 137 for Income and Employment
• No. 58 for Community and Environment
• Total Score: 54.12
• Overall Rank: No. 98

Here are St. Petersburg's happiness factors:

• No. 124 for Emotional and Physical Well-Being
• No. 51 for Income and Employment
• No. 112 for Community and Environment
• Total Score: 52.57
• Overall Rank: No. 109

Other Florida cities on the list are:

• Jacksonville, No. 111
• Orlando, 121
• Miami, 130
• Hialeah, 158