This came across my news feed & I thought I’d throw it on here since it seems I see it on the forum almost every year. New Happy City Index. And since it’s a thread I started it shouldn’t offend anyone by me saying this list is a bunch of bull sheet, IMO. I won’t go over & criticize every city I know but here’s only a few observations. First, Dallas sucks now. Everyone says so. It true. Second, my family & I were in Zurich this summer. Locals did not smile or laugh in public from what I seen. Grocery shopping & dining out were all day affairs because everything was so expensive. People spent excessive amounts of time looking at prices instead of buying or enjoying. Lastly, freaking bombed out, living at the mercy of a dictator, all middle-aged males trying to escape or dead Kyiv, Ukraine made the list this year. No thank you when it comes to living in that “Happy City”. Either the list is a parody or a bunch of bi-polars who don’t know what happiness is compiled it.
You should be happy that Boston made it as #177 on the list.
(The happies US city, no less)
BTW; Kiev was last on the list of the 250 happiest cities in the world.
(At #251, listed as “un-ranked”)
PS: Just behind Dallas at #248.
Correction:
There is a US city among the top 50:
45 San Francisco United States 6395
I agree Boston can have happy people in it if you get them drunk or bragging on their sports team. They can be the happiest & proudest people in the world under the right conditions. But that list has New York City at 207th & Minneapolis as the 210th happiest cities in the world. Those places suck. I can think of a thousand places I rather live to be happy. Cambridge, Mass was 50th but I never been there. And again, Kyiv!? What in the heck? Their president & our media claim it’s a war zone, anyone can be killed any second & they’re 251? Either our media or those happy list maker are lying to us.
Quoting the most succinct and piping happily here personality “ first world standard” has not achieved world recognition. But who cares about opinion of voices from the jungle.
mirror mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all?
War zone is in Ghaza, Beirut, Teheran and surprisingly in Telaviv .So surely your media which copy/paste their media are lying like their green goblin con artist ,penis piano playing presidente.
#251 on a list of 250 and “un-ranked” should tell you that they agree with you, Kiev is NOT a happy place.
Maybe your President could DEMAND that his friend Putin stop bombing Kiev (and the rest of Ukraine) WITHING 48 HOURS, or else?
I couldn’t disagree with you more about the competency & intent of these bogus “best in the world list” creators. Kyiv has 2.9 million people while Mogadishu has 4.4 million people. Both are global major cities & both equally suck in many regards. Why not have a 3-way Kyiv/Mogadishu/Damascus tie if the 251 spot was meant to show unhappy cities? Also, between 251 & 235 are Houston, Chicago & Atlanta. While none of them are as bad a Kyiv, they aren’t “Happy Cities”. Most people who live in those places are trapped there by family ties or work obligations. Those are cities of last resort when you can’t find a job any where else. These “Happiness Lists” are just biased click bait with very little truth or research involved IMO.
Here they are:
I don’t know any of them, nor do I know what is their motivation for compiling this list. Do you?
There are other list ranking cities for their livability and quality of life:
Maybe Forbes is more believable?:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2025/06/18/the-20-best-cities-to-live-in-the-world-according-to-a-2025-report/