3 Ohio towns among Top 10 most unhappy cities in U.S., report says

Happiness, as the old adage goes, is a state of mind.

Or is it? One new study suggests your happiness isn’t so much a state of mind, but instead varies based on where you live.

For those in Ohio, brace yourself: Three cities are ranked among the top 10 most unhappy cities in the U.S., according to a new report from WalletHub.

The report, “Happiest Cities in the U.S. 2024,” compared 182 U.S. cities across three categories: Emotional & physical well-being, such as depression rate, adequate-sleep rate, life expectancy, and more; income and employment, including job satisfaction, poverty rate, income-growth rate, and more; and community and environment, including ideal weather, acres of parkland per 1,000 residents, and more.

Overall, Cleveland ranked 181st out of 182 cities when it came to overall happiness. The only city that ranked lower than Cleveland was Detroit.

By specific metric, Cleveland also ranked 181st in adequate-sleep rate as well as separation and divorce rate, again finishing ahead of only Detroit in both measurements.

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Beyond Cleveland, Toledo and Akron also ranked in the bottom 10 cities for happiness. Toledo ranked 176th out of 182 cities while Akron placed 173rd, rounding out the bottom 10 least happy cities in the U.S.

The bottom 10 cities in the U.S. in terms of happiness, according to WalletHub, are:

182. Detroit, MI

181. Cleveland, OH

180. Montgomery, AL

179. Birmingham, AL

178. Shreveport, LA

177. Huntington, WV

176. Toledo, OH

175. Jackson, MS

174. Mobile, AL

173. Akron, OH

Beyond Cleveland, Toledo and Akron ranking among the bottom 10, two additional Ohio cities also made the list of happiest cities in the U.S., but didn’t fare much better. Columbus ranked 135th amongst U.S. cities in terms of happiness while Cincinnati is 146th overall. Cincinnati’s ranking of 146th overall by WalletHub is a stark contrast to the Queen City being ranked as one of Outside Magazine’s 15 happiest places to live in the U.S.

The top 10 happiest cities in the U.S., according to WalletHub’s report, are:

1. Fremont, CA

2. Overland Park, KS

3. San Jose, CA

4. Madison, WI

5. Irvine, CA

6. Honolulu, HI

7. San Francisco, CA

8. Pearl City, HI

9. Columbia, MD

10. Scottsdale, AZ

The full report from WalletHub ranking the happiest cities in the U.S. can be found online.