If not, well…perhaps you want to move to Fremont, California (#1 Ranking Baby!), or Sioux Falls, South Dakota (merely 5th). These are two communities that outranked Washington, D.C. as being some of the “Happiest Places to Live,” according to a recent survey conducted by WalletHub.
How are these rankings compiled, one might ask? The survey asked about adequate sleep rates (you know Washingtonians don’t sleep – bad!), lowest and highest depression rates (as a political town, that is probably a wash), the most worked hours (we’re in the tank because we are a town of workaholics), income growth (now we gotcha!), obesity rate (not going there), and sports participation levels (well if you’re talking residents – extremely high, professional teams – ugh – but on the incredible rise!).
So Washington came in 10th behind a few notables, but at least we rank! Perhaps this survey occurred prior to the recent news that both the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raider football teams were bolting their respective communities? They ranked 7th and 8th respectively – perhaps we’ve jumped them since Daniel Snyder hasn’t bolted Washington yet?
Eight of the ten top winners were California cities. Sioux Falls and Washington were the outliers. Hmm…Is California that far ahead of the rest of the country in “happiness”? If so, then they must sleep a lot, are chilled, work when they want, are not worried about money, spend a lot of time eating well and working out (see money), and play and enjoy a lot of sports. Well, sounds pretty much like a darn happy place to me! But we still love Washington for what it is – A GREAT PLACE TO LIVE MORE AND COMMUTE LESS! And to BE HAPPY!