How can you measure happiness? The mental or emotional state, the smiley well-being feeling that is so individual and yet we measure happiness, we study it, we analyze it, we even celebrate it on March 20th every year, but what is it?
Wouldn’t it be worth looking at the cities in the USA that are considered to be the happiest places in the country and seeing what they are doing right to get the smiles on their faces? What is it that certain cities have that makes the inhabitants happy [9] and is there a link with money and economic prosperity. The old adage goes that money can’t make you happy, but perhaps people believe that if you have it, then it can buy you time. You can’t buy happiness, or at least it can only be bought temporarily. But, the way we spend our time can certainly make us happy. The way we spend our time in the workplace, for instance can have a great impact on our well-being. Making sure that employees are happy can only have a positive effect on the competitiveness of the company and as such provide greater effort from the people that are being rewarded with that feeling because of the environment in which they work.
The same thing goes for the places where we live. Well-being is hot property today. You can buy your house, but can you buy the happiness of the city in which you live? Where are the happiest places to live in the USA today?
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is the measurement published annually of the well-being of Americans based on interviews that are carried out over a period of two months (December and January). There are five metrics that are taken into consideration, which are:
- Purpose: Liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve goals.
- Social: Having supportive relationships and love in your life.
- Financial: Managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security.
- Community: Liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community.
- Physical: Having good health and enough energy to get things done daily.
Happiest Cities in the USA
10. Winston-Salem, NC
9. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
8. San-José-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
7. Provo-Orem, UT
6. Austin-Round Rock, TX
5. El Paso, TX
4. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Venture, CA
3. Raleigh, NC
2. Urban Honolulu, HI
1. North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL
This community has a ranking of 11 for Purpose, meaning that the majority of people can actually see a goal and an objective in the accomplishment of their daily routines and work activities. They have a score of 4, meaning that 96% of the population feels that they have supportive family members and that they feel loved. Just 2% do not feel that they are able to manage financially. 12% of the population does not have pride in the community meaning that 88% do feel that sense of belonging and pride, accompanied with the feeling of safety. The vast majority of the community feels that they have the energy to accomplish daily tasks (with the score of 2, meaning that 98% of the residents feel this way).
The people that live in the communities ranked above are 12% more likely to learn interesting and new things in their daily lives than those that are unhappy. They are 6% more likely to get positive energy from those that surround them than those that are in the saddest communities and they are 16% less likely to worry about where the money is coming from.
Saddest Cities in the USA
Just out of curiosity, where would you probably not like to live because the city comes out as being the saddest in the list of the research carried out? Look at the poverty rate in half of the top ten cities that are the most miserable in the country. They all have poverty rates that are higher than the national average (15.8%). The median household income in all but two of the top ten cities that are the most miserable is also below the national average. Money might not get you happiness, but it certainly gets you security and anyhow, people’s perception of happiness comes from money these days. It’s not important to know if it’s true, it’s important to know if you perceive it as being true. The old craggy-wrinkled granny still uses the beauty cream even though it doesn’t work anymore, it’s the perception that she has of it that makes her feel better. She doesn’t have to really see the effect; she just has to perceive it in her mind. People in these cities, however, no longer have the wrinkle cream to magic away their sadness:
10. Cincinnati, OH
The scores here stood at 73 for Purpose, 85 for Social, 53 for Financial, 77 for Community and 86 for Physical. The poverty rate stands at 14.5% and the unemployment rate at 7.2%. There are 285.2 violent crimes per 100, 000 in this city. Since the Gallup Index started in 2008, this community has systematically ranked in the top ten. Between 2010 and 2014 the city had one of the lowest growth rates of population in the country, standing at 1.5%.
9. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
The scores here stood at 87 for Purpose, 86 for Social, 70 for Financial, 97 for Community and 81 for Physical. The poverty rate stands at 16.9% and the unemployment rate hot 10% in 2013/2014. In 2009 it was over 17%. There are 569.6 violent crimes per 100, 000 in this community and this is one of the highest levels across the country. 17.5% of residents use food stamps to live on. Michigan is the 9th most miserable state in the USA also.
8. Columbus, OH
The scores here stood at 94, 96, 80, 69 and 91 respectively for the 5 criteria. The poverty rate in this community stands at 14.8% and the unemployment rate currently stands at just 4.4%, which is surprising since the residents do not perceive themselves to be happy. There is an adult obesity rate that works out to over 30% of the population in this community. Nearly 15% of the residents have to resort to using food stamps to live. The national average is nearer 13% today.
7. Scranton-Wilkes-Barre-Hazleton, PA
This community is the 7th unhappiest in the country with scores ranging from 51 to 98 for the five elements. The poverty rate in this community stands at 15.5% and the adult obesity rate is at nearly 30%. There are over 232 crimes that are considered to be violent for every 100, 000 registered. The typical household income stands at $45, 333 per annum. Roughly 20% of the population has an alcohol-related addiction.
6. Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL
This community has one off the highest scores for Physical well-being, standing at 94, meaning that it is the least likely community to have enough energy to do what needs to be done on a daily basis. Poverty rates here stand at 16.2% and the unemployment rate is currently 5.9%. There are 392.7 violent crimes per 100, 000 that take place. Nearly 20% of those that are resident here do not possess health cover or health insurance and nearly a quarter of the residents smoke. Over 25% of the children there were considered to be living in poverty and as such is one of the highest figures nationwide.
5. Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN
This community has scores ranging from 67 to 99, making it the fifth worst community to live in nationwide and part of the lowest quintile of the study. The poverty rate here stands at more than 15% and the obesity rate is at 30.7%.
4. Dayton, OH.
The poverty rate stands at 16.4% and the adult obesity rate stands at nearly 30% also. There are more than 270 violent crimes per hundred thousand crimes recorded. Between 2010 and 2014, the population of this community only grew by 0.1%. 40% of households are made up of one-parent families. It has a figure of 98 for Physical meaning that just 2% of the population believes that they have enough energy to get their daily tasks done.
3. Knoxville, TN
This community has a poverty rate of 17.5% and an obesity rate that stands at over 30%. The national median household income stands at $52, 250, while the median income here is only at $45,051. All people interviewed for the study reported not having enough energy to complete their daily tasks or ill health that prevented them from doing so. Purpose only scored 98, meaning that people do not consider at all that they have a purpose in life or a goal to achieve.
2. Toledo, OH
The poverty rate stands at 19.5% and there are 530.3 violent crimes per hundred thousand crimes reported. 20% of residents here lived in poverty in 2013 and the median income stood at $42, 792. Nobody has a feeling of pride for the community and nobody feels safe and secure living in this community (score of 100).
1. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA
This is the community with the lowest feeling of well-being in the country. It scores 100 for both Purpose and Social aspects and 99 for Community. The poverty rate stands at over 17% and obesity at over 31%. The community saw a reduction in its community residents when the population shrank by 2.1%, which was one of the largest falls in population in 2014 for a US community.
The people on the sad list are less likely to be proud of the community that they live in. People in the happy list are 18% more likely to feel a sense of pride about their communities.
International Happiness
So what is happiness? A good life? Don’t forget Thomas Jefferson’s universal right of the “pursuit of happiness” in 1776 in the United States Declaration of Independence. Why are we so set on finding out whether we are happy or not? Jefferson took the idea of the pursuit of happiness and its ability to create a free society, and a democracy, from John Lo>“The necessity of pursuing happiness [is] the foundation of liberty. As therefore the highest perfection of intellectual nature lies in a careful and constant pursuit of true and solid happiness; so the care of ourselves, that we mistake not imaginary for real happiness, is the necessary foundation of our liberty. The stronger ties we have to an unalterable pursuit of happiness in general, which is our greatest good, and which, as such, our desires always follow, the more are we free from any necessary determination of our will to any particular action…”.
For Locke and for Jefferson, the pursuit of happiness meant freedom. It meant not merely the pursuit of pleasure and property, self-interest and the solid pleasures in society, but the freedom to be able to decide. How far do we remember that goal that was the definition of happiness in the beginning?
Perhaps sometimes some that govern us have forgotten that the universal right to happiness should still exist as the right of every citizen in this country and not just the chosen few. If we look further afield in the international rankings of where we would be happiest? According to the World Happiness Report published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, edited by the University of British Columbia and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, then we would have to go to one of these top countries today. Who’s ready to move there?
On a scale of 0 to 10 there are six categories according to the research that are taken into account when looking at happiness levels in different countries. They are:
- Real GDP [10] per capita
- Healthy life expectancy
- Counting on someone
- Perceived freedom of choices in life
- Freedom from corruption
- Generosity
2015 International Happiness Rankings
- Switzerland 7.587
- Iceland 7.561
- Denmark 7.527
- Norway 7.522
- Canada 7.427
- Finland 7.406
- Netherlands 7.389
- Sweden 7.378
- New Zealand 7.364
- Australia 7.350
The United States comes in only at 17th position with a score of 7.082 and the United Kingdom is in 22nd position with a ranking of 6.883.
Comparing cross-culturally the measurement of someone’s perceived happiness is not easy at all. Happiness by definition is subjective. Naturally, there are some elements that are purely objective such as life expectancy and GDP [11] growth. But, the perceived freedom of choices is hard to measure from one country to another as is the freedom from corruption. Corruption can only be measured when we truly see the transparency of society and when we know everything that is taking place. Money can only buy you happiness when it is a means of providing subsistence. However, studies show that once we go beyond subsistence money generates very little happiness in the spender [12]. This is known as the Easterlin paradox. High earners have already been shown to have greater life satisfaction (Kahneman and Deaton, 2010) in their personal opinion, but they emotional well-being on a daily basis is not affected by the growth in salary beyond a salary of $75, 000 per annum.
But, Spectrum’s Millionaire’s Corner had research carried out that showed: “Happiness rises steadily with net worth, according to our results. Less than one-fourth of investors with a net worth of less than $100,000 (not including primary residence) rated their happiness as a nine or a ten. Compare that to 44 percent for Millionaires with a net worth of $5 million or more.” That’s not surprising however coming from the Millionaire’s Corner, is it?
Many have already shown that happiness doesn’t come from money. But, few have actually concentrated on the fact that money can certainly make you feel less sad. But, recently in 2015 findings were published that showed that there really is a relationship between feeling less sad and having more money. The findings were made public by Kostadin Kushlev and reported in an article entitled ‘Higher Income Is Associated with Less Daily Sadness but not More Daily Happiness’. The wealthier feel perhaps not happier, but they certainly feel less sad and perceive that they have a better life once they have money.
What would make you perceive greater happiness?
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