With the International Day of Happiness coming up on March 20, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2025’s Happiest Cities in America, with one city in Maryland coming in ranked at #16– Columbia (Howard County).
To identify the happiest cities, WalletHub compared more than 180 of the largest U.S. cities across 29 key indicators of happiness. The data set ranges from the depression rate to the income-growth rate to the average leisure time spent per day.
Columbia, MD was ranked 16th overall with its highest ranking coming in the ‘Emotional & Physical Well-Being’ subcategory. Baltimore, the only other Maryland city that was ranked, came in 162nd out of 182 cities total. The top 20 and “key stats” can be seen below:
| Top 20 Happiest Cities in America | |
| 1. Fremont, CA | 11. Bismarck, ND |
| 2. San Jose, CA | 12. Omaha, NE |
| 3. Irvine, CA | 13. Seattle, WA |
| 4. Sioux Falls, SD | 14. Charleston, SC |
| 5. Overland Park, KS | 15. San Diego, CA |
| 6. Lincoln, NE | 16. Columbia, MD |
| 7. Madison, WI | 17. Plano, TX |
| 8. Scottsdale, AZ | 18. Honolulu, HI |
| 9. San Francisco, CA | 19. South Burlington, VT |
| 10. Huntington Beach, CA | 20. Garden Grove, CA |
Key Stats
- Pearl City, Hawaii has the lowest depression rate – 2.3 times lower than in Knoxville, Tennessee, the city with the highest.
- Newark, New Jersey has the lowest number of suicides per 100,000 residents – 6.5 times lower than in Missoula, Montana, the city with the highest.
- Fremont, California has the lowest separation & divorce rate – 4.6 times lower than in Detroit, Michigan, the city with the highest.
- South Burlington, Vermont, has the lowest share of adults sleeping less than 7 hours per night – two times lower than in Detroit, Michigan, the city with the highest.
- Missoula, Montana and Bismarck, North Dakota have the lowest average commute time – 2.6 times lower than in New York, the city with the highest.
To view the full report and your city’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/happiest-places-to-live/32619
Courtesy Google Earth