Here’s where Seattle ranks for ‘happiest places to live’ in the US
Aug 3, 2026, 3:24 PM
The Space Needle stands over the Seattle skyline as Mt. Rainier is seen in the background on March 13, 2022 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo: John Moore, Getty Images via KIRO 7)
(Photo: John Moore, Getty Images via KIRO 7)
We may have the ‘Big Dark’ and the Seattle Freeze, but that apparently doesn’t seem to impact Seattle being named one of the happiest places to live in the U.S. by WalletHub.
Seattle came in at 15 on a list of 182 cities.
Tacoma, Vancouver, and Spokane, Washington all made the triple digits in the list, coming in at 105, 114, and 118, respectively.
Seattle’s total score out of 100 is 65.62, just under Chandler, Arizona (coming in at 65.69). The top city was Fremont, California, ranked at 74.09.
Seattle ranked number 6 for “emotional and physical well-being rank” and 7 for “income and employment rank.”
The Emerald City didn’t do so great for the “community and environment rank, coming in at 152 of 182.
“Location can influence how bright or gloomy our daily lives feel. For decades, researchers have explored the science of happiness and identified several core factors, including mental well-being, physical health, strong social ties, job satisfaction, and financial stability,” WalletHub wrote.
WalletHub.com describes its methodology
“In order to determine the happiest cities in America, WalletHub compared 182 of the largest cities — including the 150 most populated U.S. cities, plus at least two of the most populated cities in each state — across three key dimensions: 1) Emotional & Physical Well-Being, 2) Income & Employment and 3) Community & Environment.
We evaluated these categories using 29 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing maximum happiness. Data for metrics marked with an asterisk (*) were available only at the state level.
We then determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.”
You can read more about how they scored certain aspects here.
