There are many things to love about SF; from beautiful parks, famous cuisine, beautiful architecture, and so much more. A new study evaluating the happiness of global cities has been released, and San Francisco was one of the happiest cities in the world. Of the 250 global cities, SF was one of 10 U.S. cities to make the cut.
The Institute for Quality of Life, based in London, conducted the study, which they’ve named the Happiness Index. The study divided the 250 top cities into gold, silver, and bronze categories. San Francisco was in the bronze category at #114. Other top U.S. cities include Minneapolis, Boston, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.
The top 37 cities in the gold category were not ranked by order, as researchers believed it was impossible to identify the single happiest city. Therefore, the index intends to identify a “group of cities committed to happiness cultivation and growth, where education, inclusive policies, economy, mobility, environmental protection, access to green areas or innovation…”
The mythology of the study emphasizes that ‘happiness’ was measured by individuals who actually live in a city instead of hypotheticals. The study combined data with interviews of people living in the cities to assess residents’ happiness. The index considered cities with a population of 300,000 or above; although there were some exceptions in the study based on significant achievements, this made the total number of cities considered to be slightly over 1650.
The study focused on five themes: citizens, governance, environment, economy, and mobility. Within each theme, many interconnecting factors played a role in measuring the quality of life in cities. Those factors were identified as 24 areas, each fitting into a particular theme. Some areas include education, safety of the transport system, innovation and creativity of residents, availability of green areas, and more.
San Francisco’s highest score was in the governance theme, with the economy closely following. Many of the top-ranked cities were in Europe, with Aarhus, Zurich, and Berlin in the top three. Minneapolis was the highest-ranked U.S. city, securing a spot in the top 37.
This isn’t the only time SF has been ranked highly compared to other cities. SF was ranked as one of the world’s best cities, snagging spot #7. In a study by WalletHub, SF was ranked #5 as one of the most fun cities in the United States.