We may have rats, roaches and a steadily dwindling bank account, but at least we’re living in the happiest city in the U.S.! According to the #2025 Happy City Index from the Institute for Quality of Life, NYC was the first U.S. city named among the happiest places globally.
The ranking utilizes a category system (gold, silver, bronze) to group cities into their respective happiness scores, rather than establishing one single city as the ultimate winner.
The gold “happiest” cities grouping makes up the highest scoring international cities in terms of happiness, followed by the silver group and then bronze. NYC was only one of two U.S. cities (the other being Minnesota) to reach gold status.
The Institute for Quality of Life observed factors like a city’s determination to cultivate and grow happiness, and whether or not it had inclusive policies spanning education, economy, mobility, environmental protection, access to green areas, and innovation to directly impact a resident’s quality of life. To determine the groupings, they scored each city in the ranking based off of six core categories: citizens, governance, environment, economy, health and mobility.
“We know happiness is influenced by many factors, and a wealth of research backs this up. Every year, we work hard to objectively assess what truly matters to city dwellers, using this insight to evaluate their happiness,” the Institute for Quality of Life noted in their methodology.
The highest scoring city was Copenhagen, Denmark with a total of 1039 points. Zurich, Switzerland (993), Singapore (979), Aarhus, Denmark (958), Antwerp, Belgium (956), Seoul, South Korea (942), Stockholm, Sweden (941), Taipei, Taiwan Region (936), Munich, Germany (931), Rotterdam, Netherlands (920) made up the remaining top 10.
NYC ranked in 17th place among the gold group, with a total of 902 points. You can explore the full weight of each category and score online.
U.S. cities among the silver group include San Diego, Washington, D.C., Salt Lake City, Columbus, Los Angeles, Seattle, Baltimore and San Antonio.
The #2025 Happy City Index marks the 6th annual edition. You can explore previous rankings like the #2024 Happy City Index to see how they compare to this year’s here.