Santa Rosa makes list of America’s happiest cities

Santa Rosa is the 14th happiest city in the United States, according to a new report.

The report published March 1 by WalletHub examined more than 180 of the largest U.S. cities to determine which were home to the happiest people.

Each city was given a ranking based on 30 key indicators of happiness, ranging from the depression rate to the income-growth rate to average leisure time spent per day.

These indicators were sorted into three categories: emotional and physical wellbeing, income and employment, and community and environment.

The emotional and physical wellbeing category included factors such as adequate sleep, food security and suicide rates.

The income and employment category took into account income-growth rates, poverty rates, job security, unemployment rates, commute times, job satisfaction and job opportunities.

The category for community and environment included each city’s separation and divorce rate, hate crime incidents, weather and acres of parkland per 1,000 residents.

Santa Rosa dropped four slots below its ranking on WalletHub’s list last year, when it was ranked the 10th happiest city.

Santa Rosa had a total score of 64.52, and was ranked 13th in emotional and physical wellbeing, 22nd in income and employment, and 105th in community and environment.

Six other California cities were ranked above Santa Rosa. Fremont was named America’s happiest city, with a score of 77.13. San Francisco ranked 3rd overall, San Jose ranked 4th, Irvine ranked 5th, Huntington Beach ranked 9th and San Diego ranked 10th. California was ranked the 4th happiest state overall.