2 MD Cities Among Happiest In America For 2021: List

COLUMBIA, MD — With International Day of Happiness approaching March 20 and the average American's stress level on the rise for the first time since 2007 because of the pandemic, the personal-finance website WalletHub decided it was a good time to release its report on the Happiest Cities In America for 2021.

The report brought good news for residents in a couple of Maryland cities, which ranked among the Top 100 Happiest Cities in America, according to WalletHub. Both Columbia and Baltimore made the list, although Columbia was alone in making the top 10.

"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."

Columbia, situated within commuting distance of both Baltimore and DC/northern Virginia, has a median income of $114,000 a year, a quality public school system and routinely makes best cities lists.

See Also:

• This MD Community Is Among Money's Best Places To Live In 2020
• Maryland's 200 Best Places To Live For 2020 Ranked

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 Columbia's happiness rankings:

• No. 4 for Emotional and Physical Well-Being
• No. 95 for Income and Employment
• No. 102 for Community and Environment
• Total Score: 67.73
• Overall Rank: No. 1

Here is a look at Baltimore's happiness factors:

• No. 125 for Emotional and Physical Well-Being
• No. 173 for Income and Employment
• No. 164 for Community and Environment
• Total Score: 46.23
• Overall Rank: No. 157