Recently, Minneapolis, Minnesota was named as one of the happiest cities in the world. This recognition came after being evaluated by the Institute for Quality of Life’s Happy City Index, which looked at thousands of indicators related to quality of life and happiness for residents.
Cities were assessed based on 24 different areas of activity within categories such as citizens, governance, environment, economy, and mobility. Among U.S. cities, only Minneapolis received a gold status, ranking 17th out of 37 total cities in the gold grouping. Aarhus, Denmark was named the top-ranked city in the world.
What made Minneapolis stand out was its performance in the citizens and economy categories. Several other U.S. cities also made it onto the silver and bronze lists, including Boston, Baltimore, Washington, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Madison, Pittsburgh, Rochester and Portland. Additionally, Madison Wisconsin has been recognized in various rankings evaluating happiness in cities.