The 10 happiest cities in America in 2026

Maybe your town made the list. A new study by WalletHub ranked 182 U.S. cities according to 29 indicators across three broad categories: emotional and physical well-being, income and employment, and community and environment. Fremont, California, came out on top, with particularly strong scores in emotional and physical well-being and community and environment. Let’s see if one of these is your hometown, or perhaps somewhere you would consider your next happy place.

This city, located on the southeast shore of San Francisco Bay, leads the nation's happiness ranking. It has the highest percentage of households with an income above $75,000, with 79.7% of families exceeding that mark.

Fremont also has the seventh-lowest depression rate, the fifth-highest average life expectancy at about 82 years old, and the country's lowest separation and divorce rate, at 9.3%. WalletHub even notes that residents may be less inclined to move to Florida when they turn 65.

Bismarck, North Dakota, the nation's second-happiest city, stands out for its combination of good health, leisure time, and strong community ties. Residents have some of the most leisure time in the country, giving them more opportunities to relax, spend time with family and friends, and pursue their interests.

The city also boasts strong health and employment scores, helping it rank near the top overall.

In Scottsdale, Arizona, almost 90% of residents report having good or better health, the third-highest in the country, while nearly 87% participate in some form of physical activity. The city also combines good health with financial stability: about 65% of households earn more than $75,000 a year, while the poverty rate is about 7%.

South Burlington, Vermont, ranked fourth overall and has the highest rate of adequate sleep in the study. Residents are also highly active, with the city recording the highest sports participation rate. Strong scores in emotional and physical well-being, as well as income and employment, further helped it reach fourth place.

Fargo, North Dakota, not only has a movie and a series, both with the city's name in the title, but now also proudly ranks number five in the happiness rankings. According to the WalletHub study's results, its strength lies in its community.

Although winters can be brutally cold, residents consistently express high levels of life satisfaction, showcasing what tight-knit communities can do for emotional well-being, which also translates to good health.

The second largest city in Kansas after Wichita, Overland Park hasn’t done badly at all, ranking at number six in the nation's happiness index.

It outshone the rest when it comes to health and joy, since it ranks second in the country in emotional and physical well-being, hand in hand with consistently high scores in mental health and personal life satisfaction.

Charleston, South Carolina, proudly ranks seventh in this year’s ranking. When looking at its results in detail, it ranked third in community and environment and tenth in income and employment, giving it a particularly strong combination of community, lifestyle, and economic factors.

Residents of Irvine, California, ranked number eight overall and located one hour south of Los Angeles, report a high quality of life across the board, including top-tier scores in emotional and physical well-being. Simultaneously, it is also positioned as one of the safest cities in America, which goes to show how feeling protected is one of the quieter drivers of day-to-day happiness.

Gilbert, Arizona, came ninth in this joyous statistic, standing out from the rest because of its strong connections and community ties. Neighbors expressed feeling rooted, showcasing that a sense of belonging strongly impacts people’s well-being.

This town also came sixth in terms of community and environment, which takes into account factors such as weather, park space, and leisure time, among others.

San Jose, California, rounds out the list at number 10 with a great combination of high incomes and overall peace of mind, described as a city with many opportunities, but where work-life balance might take a little more effort.

The Silicon Valley city also has 300 days of sunshine a year on average and, similar to Fremont, California, at number one, has one of the lowest marital separation rates in America.

Did you know these 10 modern cities are built on ancient empires?

When we look at modern metropolises, it’s easy to assume that their towering skyscrapers are new inventions carved out of raw wilderness. In reality, many of our world’s busiest cities are built directly over the bones, temples, and plazas of disappeared empires. From underground subway stations that double as archeological digs to royal sarcophagi found in modern districts, here are ten cities you probably didn't realize are sitting on ancient ruins.

The modern capital of Italy sits many feet above the street level of the ancient Roman Empire. Over two millennia, fires, floods, and constant rebuilding projects caused the ground level to rise, sealing intact imperial structures beneath the modern asphalt.

For example, building a new subway line in Rome is a logistical nightmare. Whenever city engineers attempt to drill a new tunnel, they inevitably hit an underground archeological wall. Construction workers regularly stumble upon fully intact 2,000-year-old Roman military barracks, imperial villas, and ancient shopping centers deep beneath the modern traffic.

Istanbul has served as the capital of three major global empires: the Roman, the Byzantine, and the Ottoman. Modern Istanbul was once Constantinople and, before that, the ancient Greek city of Byzantium.

Because of this intense history, the city is literally hollowed out by ancient architecture. Beneath the busy streets of the Sultanahmet district lies a vast network of subterranean structures, the most famous of which is the Basilica Cistern. Built by Byzantine Emperor Justinian I in the 6th century, this cavernous underground water reservoir features 336 marble columns rising out of the water, sitting silently beneath the city’s bustling tram lines and markets.

Mexico City is one of the clearest examples of a modern capital built directly on top of an ancient city. In the early 15th century, the Aztec Empire established its magnificent capital, Tenochtitlan, on an island in the middle of Lake Texcoco. When Hernán Cortés conquered the city in 1512, the Spanish drained the surrounding lake and used the stones of the demolished Aztec temples to build their own cathedrals and palaces.

If you visit the city’s central plaza, the Zócalo, you’re standing directly over the ceremonial heart of the Aztec world. Right next to the colonial Metropolitan Cathedral lie the excavated ruins of the Templo Mayot, which was completely lost under the city streets until electric company workers accidentally rediscovered it in 1978.

Much like Rome, the capital of modern Greece is a playground for urban archaeologists. During the early 21st century, as Athens prepared to host the 2004 Olympic Games, the city undertook a massive expansion of its underground metro system, which required digging through untouched subterranean layers of ancient history.

The excavation unearthed over 50,000 ancient artifacts, structural foundations, cemeteries, and ancient aqueducts. Instead of moving the items to distant museums, the city turned the subway stations themselves into galleries. If you catch a train at the Syntagma or Monastiraki stations, you can view ancient structural ruins and archaeological strata preserved alongside modern train platforms.

Kyoto is celebrated as the cultural heart of Japan, famous for preserving its historic wooden temples and geisha districts. The hidden secret of Kyoto, however, is that the entire grid of the modern city was laid out in the 8th century, when it was founded as Heian-kyō, the ancient capital of the Japanese Emperor. When utilities are upgraded beneath major thoroughfares like Karasuma Street, workers uncover buried wooden water pipes, old well systems, and pottery shards from the ancient Heian palace.

While tourists immediately look toward the Giza Plateau to see the pyramids, the city of Cairo sits on top of ancient Egyptian and early Islamic capitals.

Specifically, the northeast Cairo neighborhood of Ain Shams (meaning "Eye of the Sun" in Arabic) is built directly over the ruins of ancient Heliopolis, one of the oldest cities in ancient Egyptian history and the cult center of the sun god Ra. Because the modern neighborhood is densely populated, fully intact obelisks, temple columns, and royal sarcophagi are occasionally discovered by property developers digging out the basements for new residential apartments.

Located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Madurai is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, with a recorded history of over 2,500 years. It was a major trading hub for the ancient Pandyan Dynasty that famously traded spices and silk with ancient Rome.

The modern city of Madurai is laid out in a series of concentric squares designed to mimic the shape of a lotus flower, radiating outward from the magnificent Meenakshi Amman Temple. Because the city has never been abandoned, modern shops, banks, and residences sit directly over the foundations of historic markets that have dictated the city’s geography for millennia.

Today, Barcelona is synonymous with modern architecture and beach tourism, but the city was actually founded by the Roman Emperor Augustus around 15 BC as a modest military colony named Barcino.

If you walk into the Gothic Quarter, you can step inside the Museu d'Història de la Ciutat (MUHBA) and take an elevator down beneath the city streets. There, you’ll find yourself walking along elevated pathways over a 43,000-square-foot underground excavation of ancient Barcino. You can walk through 2nd-century Roman streets, inspect ancient laundry facilities, look at wineries, and touch the monumental defensive walls that still support the foundations of medieval and modern buildings above.

Today, Xi’an is a booming industrial and technological metropolis in western China. But during antiquity, this city was known as Chang'an, the eastern end of the Silk Road and the capital of 13 separate Chinese dynasties.

The intact Ming Dynasty city wall that surrounds downtown Xi'an sits on top of the much older foundations of the Tang Dynasty's imperial palace walls. Furthermore, when subways or new foundations are dug in the city’s outskirts, they usually find ancient tomb complexes, much like the famous discovery of the Terracota Army by local farmers in 1974.

When travelers hear "Peruvian ruins", they picture Machu Picchu. Yet, Peru’s modern capital of Lima is home to a network of ancient archeological sites hiding in plain sight. Long before the Inca Empire rose to prominence, the Ychsma cultures constructed massive sacred complexes out of adobe bricks around the coastal Lima.

Today, these step pyramids, known as huacas, sit surrounded by modern life. If you walk through the wealthy financial district of Miraflores, you’ll run right into Huaca Pucllana, an enormous 1,500-year-old administrative and ceremonial complex. Rather than demolishing these sacred buildings, the city built its streets, restaurants, and apartments around them, creating an amazing architectural contrast.