Pennsylvania Has One of the Happiest Cities in America
When asked, “What do you want out of life?,” many people answer, “I want to be happy.” It’s one of the biggest desires for humans, really. So, if you want to be happy, it would probably help to live in one of the happiest cities in America. Well, one Pennsylvania city is one of the happiest cities in the U.S., as ranked by a new study.
The study comes from Outsideonline.com. They came up with a list of the 15 happiest cities in America. To select these cities, they used certain factors, including overall well-being; public land and affordability; climate change and inclusivity; and demographic stats. For the stats, the figures used in this study come from the U.S. Census Bureau. Also, median home and rental prices come from Redfin data as of July 2023. Finally, information on percentage of parkland and proximity to parks came from the Trust for Public Land. So, all these factors combined make them “happy.” A lot more went into the methodology of this study, too, and you can find more information here.
So, which Pennsylvania city is considered one of the happiest cities in America? It’s Harrisburg. The city, according to this study, has a population of 50,183, median home price of $176,000, median rental price of $1,425 and a percentage of parkland at 8%. Outsideonline.com really sings the praises of this town. In the article, they state, “If proximity to Hersheypark isn’t enough to make this a sweet spot, Harrisburg woos residents with a robust arts scene, cultural events, 25 parks, and enviable status as one of the Northeast’s more affordable midsize towns. It was also recently ranked by U.S. News and World Report as the best place to live in the state and the second-best place to retire in the nation.” Find the full study on the happiest spots here.
