BALTIMORE — If you live in Baltimore, count yourself lucky, you live in one of the happiest cities in the world.
250 cities were chosen from around the world and Baltimore comes in at number 57 on the Happy City Index from the Institute for Quality of Life.
According to the institute, the rankings reflect the actual well-being of residents, with five factors being accounted for: Citizens, Governance, Environment, Economy and Mobility.
"There is no statistical woman or man whose sense of happiness can be studied by locating her or his in different cities of the world. In each location, a bunch of other determinants affects the feeling of happiness," says the Institute.
They say they study people actually living in these cities.
The cities are broken into gold, silver, and bronze. Baltimore earned a silver ranking. It scored 1,557.7 and it scored high in citizens and economy. It got lower scores in environment and mobility.
"Human happiness depends on many factors. A sense of security, family relationships, fulfilling dreams are only a small part of a very large collection. Cities also have their share in ensuring the happiness of residents," the institute says.
Baltimore is just one of 10 U.S. cities to even make this list. Boston and Washington, D.C. were the other two U.S cities to get a silver rating. Minneapolis is the only one to achieve gold status.
San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Madison, WI, Pittsburgh, Rochester, MN, and Portland were all on the list as bronze cities.
Aarhus, Denmark is number one overall with Zurich, Switzerland and Berlin, Germany in 2nd and 3rd.
