Guess Which Illinois City Just Ranked Among the Happiest in America

Location can play a bigger role in happiness than people might think. A new report from WalletHub looked at more than 180 of the largest cities in the U.S. to figure out where people appear to be the happiest. The study analyzed 29 different factors tied to quality of life. Things like depression rates, income growth, commute times, and how much leisure time people actually get in a day.

One Illinois city quietly showed up on the list.

The question is… can you guess which one?

What Makes a City “Happy”?

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WalletHub looked at three big categories: emotional and physical well-being, income and employment, and community and environment. Researchers say happiness is usually tied to a mix of things like good health, strong social connections, reasonable work hours, and neighborhoods where people actually feel connected to each other.

Money helps, but only to a point. Studies often show that happiness levels off once income hits around $75,000 a year.

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The Happiest Cities in America

Some of the cities that landed near the top might surprise you. Fremont, California, ranked number one overall, followed by Bismarck, North Dakota, and Scottsdale, Arizona.

Madison, Wisconsin, also made a strong showing, landing at number 12 on the list.

So… Which Illinois City Made the List?

Illinois only had one city show up near the top portion of the rankings.

The city landing at #35 happiest in America is Aurora, Illinois.

Aurora scored well in emotional and physical well-being, helping push it into the top tier of cities WalletHub analyzed.

If you want to dig into the full rankings and see where other cities landed, you can check out the complete WalletHub report here.

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