Worcester is Not Too Happy
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
GoLocalWorcester Lifestyle Team
The City of Worcester is not a happy place.
According to a recent study completed by WalletHub, Worcester ranks 121st out of 150 happy cities.
“The pursuit of happiness is an unalienable right of all people. The U.S. Declaration of Independence makes that very clear. But as everyone discovers at some point, happiness is not so easy to achieve — unless, perhaps, you’re in a place where it is not only a state of being but also a way of life,” said WalletHub.
Worcester ranks 120th for emotional and physical well being, 84th for income and employment and 137th for community and environment.
The Rankings
Worcester ranks behind Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Tampa, Florida who rank 119th and 120th respectively. Worcester ranks ahead of St. Petersburg, Florida and Milwaukee, Wisconsin who rank 122nd and 123rd respectively.
Fremont, California is ranked as the happiest city in the U.S. while Detroit, Michigan is ranked last.
See the full rankings in the map below
The Method
In order to determine the happiest cities in America, WalletHub’s analysts compared 150 of the largest cities across three key dimensions: 1) Emotional & Physical Well-Being, 2) Income & Employment and 3) Community & Environment.
They evaluated these categories using 30 relevant metrics. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing maximum happiness.
WalletHub then calculated overall scores for each city based on its weighted average across all metrics and used the resulting scores to construct our final ranking.
- Happy People Live Longer: Subjective Well-Being Contributes to Health and Longevity (Chan and Diener, 2010)
- Happiness from Ordinary and Extraordinary Experiences (Bhattacharjee and Mogilner, 2014)
- Sports Participation and Happiness: Evidence from U.S. Micro Data (Huang and Humphreys, 2010)
- Unhappy Cities (Glaeser, et al., 2014)
Emotional & Physical Well-Being - Total Points: 50
- Emotional-Health Index: Full Weight (~3.85 Points)
- Life-Satisfaction Index: Full Weight (~3.85 Points)
- Expressions of Happiness: Half Weight (~1.92 Points)
- Depression Rate: Full Weight (~3.85 Points)
- Suicide Rate: Full Weight (~3.85 Points)
- Adequate-Sleep Rate: Full Weight (~3.85 Points)
- Physical-Health Index: Full Weight (~3.85 Points)
- Sports-Participation Rate: Full Weight (~3.85 Points)
- Obesity Rate: Full Weight (~3.85 Points)
- Binge-Drinking Rate: Half Weight (~3.85 Points)
- Heart-Disease Rate: Half Weight (~1.92 Points)
- Illness & Disability Index: Full Weight (~3.85 Points)
- Life Expectancy: Full Weight (~3.85 Points)
- Food-Insecurity Rate: Full Weight (~3.85 Points)
Income & Employment - Total Points: 25
- Income-Growth Rate: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
- Share of Households Earning Annual Incomes Above $75,000: Half Weight (~3.33 Points)
- Poverty Rate: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
- Job Satisfaction: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
- Job Security: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
- Unemployment Rate: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
- Number of Weekly Work Hours: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
- Commute Time: Half Weight (~1.67 Points)
Community & Environment - Total Points: 25
- Strength of Social Ties: Full Weight (~4.17 Points)
- Population-Growth Rate: Full Weight (~4.17 Points)
- Volunteer Rate: Half Weight (~2.08 Points)
- Separation & Divorce Rate: Full Weight (~4.17 Points)
- Ideal Weather: Half Weight (~2.08 Points)
- Acres of Parkland per 1,000 Residents: Half Weight (~2.08 Points)
- Number of Attractions: Half Weight (~2.08 Points)
- Average Leisure Time Spent per Day: Full Weight (~4.17 Points)