A new survey revealed that New York is the "unhappiest" city in the United States but people continue to relocate there because of better job opportunities.
The survey was released by the U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research and co-authored by Joshua Gottlieb of the University of British Columbia's Vancouver School of Economics. The researchers asked respondents about their satisfaction with life, a measurement often used to indicate happiness levels.
"Our research indicates that people care about more than happiness alone, so other factors may encourage them to stay in a city despite their unhappiness," said Gottlieb in a press statement. "This means that researchers and policy-makers should not consider an increase in reported happiness as an overriding objective."
Despite this, researchers noted that people continue to relocate to unhappy cities for better job opportunities or lower housing prices. Additionally, the unhappiness in a city continues to persist for long durations. Researchers found that long term residents of such cities were just as unhappy as new residents.
"While the historical data on happiness are limited, the available facts suggest that cities that are now declining were also unhappy in their more prosperous past," the researchers said. "One interpretation of these facts is that individuals do not aim to maximize self-reported well-being, or happiness, as measured in surveys, and they willingly endure less happiness in exchange for higher incomes or lower housing costs.
Top 10 unhappiest metropolitan areas with a population greater than 1 million (as of 2010):
1. New York, NY
2. Pittsburgh, PA
3. Louisville, KY
4. Milwaukee, WI
5. Detroit, MI
6. Indianapolis, IN
7. St. Louis, MO
8. Las Vegas, NV
9. Buffalo, NY
10. Philadelphia, PA
Top 10 happiest metropolitan areas with a population greater than 1 million (as of 2010):
1. Richmond-Petersburg, VA
2. Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, VA
3. Washington, DC
4. Raleigh-Durham, NC
5. Atlanta, GA
6. Houston, TX
7. Jacksonville, FL
8. Nashville, TN
9. West Palm Beach-Boca Raton, FL
10. Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon, NJ
U.S. metropolitan areas with the highest reported happiness:
1. Charlottesville, VA
2. Rochester, MN
3. Lafayette, LA
4. Naples, FL
5. Baton Rouge, LA
6. Flagstaff, AZ
7. Shreveport, LA
8. Houma, LA
9. Corpus Christi, TX
10. Provo, UT
The least happy American regions are:
1. Scranton, PA
2. St. Joseph, MO
3. Erie, PA
4. South Bend, IN
5. Jersey City, NJ
6. Johnstown, PA
7. Non-metropolitan West Virginia
8. Springfield, MA
9. New York, NY
10. Evansville-Henderson, IN-KY
The study was published online in NBER Working Paper.
