America's Happiest Metros?

Portfolio.com and Business Journal has conducted 2010 Quality Of Life Index on major metropolitan area based on 24 different criteria. http://www.portfolio.com/interac...

Here are the ranking of 67 metropolitan areas.



 Rank   Metro area   Score 
1 Raleigh        17.23
2 Washington        16.10
3 Minneapolis-St. Paul        15.59
4 Bridgeport-Stamford, Conn.        15.33
5 Salt Lake City        11.57
6 Denver        10.94
7 Seattle        10.65
8 Boston        10.63
9 Austin          9.84
10 San Jose          9.52
11 Atlanta          8.68
12 Portland, Ore.          8.64
13 Omaha          8.36
14 Hartford          8.11
15 Baltimore          7.36
16 Charlotte          7.22
17 San Francisco-Oakland          6.99
18 Albany          6.97
19 Worcester, Mass.          6.39
20 Richmond          6.36
21 Kansas City          6.02
22 Nashville          5.68
23 Columbus          4.67
24 Indianapolis          4.57
25 Philadelphia          4.37
26 Allentown-Bethlehem, Pa.          4.06
27 Oxnard-Thousand Oaks, Calif.          4.01
28 Phoenix          3.48
29 Dallas-Fort Worth          2.93
30 New Haven, Conn.          2.62
31 Virginia Beach-Norfolk          2.59
32 Cincinnati          2.50
33 Sacramento          2.35
34 Rochester, N.Y.          2.29
35 San Diego          2.20
36 Albuquerque          2.14
37 Grand Rapids          2.10
38 Chicago          1.92
39 NewYork City          1.73
40 St. Louis          1.60
41 Honolulu          1.20
42 Orlando          0.87
43 Milwaukee          0.50
44 Jacksonville        (0.27)
45 Louisville        (0.46)
46 Birmingham        (0.52)
47 Houston        (0.68)
48 Pittsburgh        (0.78)
49 Oklahoma City        (1.29)
50 Tucson        (1.63)
51 Tulsa        (1.75)
52 Providence        (2.09)
53 San Antonio        (2.69)
54 Buffalo        (3.04)
55 LasVegas        (3.15)
56 Baton Rouge, La.        (3.23)
57 Detroit        (3.52)
58 Tampa-St. Petersburg        (3.52)
59 Cleveland        (3.86)
60 Dayton        (4.12)
61 Los Angeles        (4.44)
62 Miami-Fort Lauderdale        (4.52)
63 Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif.        (5.66)
64 Memphis        (7.41)
65 New Orleans      (10.92)
66 Fresno, Calif.      (13.85)
67 Bakersfield, Calif.      (14.40)

Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is also good indicator. http://www.well-beingindex.com/s...

Here is the latest results on most and worst Well-Being Cities among large metropolitan area. http://www.gallup.com/poll/12586...

There seems to be surprising similarity to Portfolio's top 20 metro! 


Hope it helps!