The 20 American communities where residents have the most satisfaction with their lives
Flickr/Vidar StensenSarasota, FloridaAfter interviewing 177,000 Americans from the 100 most populous communities in the US, researchers at Gallup concluded that residents living in Florida's Sarasota metropolitan area were the most physically, financially, and socially well-off in 2014.
Honolulu, Hawaii, Raleigh, North Carolina, and El Paso, Texas also made the top five.
Gallup
The ranking reflects residents' responses to survey questions asking how well their communities fulfilled their financial, emotional, social, safety, and physical needs. Residents were also asked to describe how their community had either strengthened or diminished their sense of purpose.
Researchers found that where you live is a significant indicator of how satisfied you will be with your life.
Residents of high well-being communities are 12% more likely to learn new and interesting things, 6% more likely to get positive energy from family and friends, 16% less likely to worry about money, and 25% less likely to suffer from depression over their lifetime, according to the report.
Residents of the lowest well-being communities, on the other hand - many of which are in Ohio - are 68% more likely to smoke and 58% more likely not to feel pride in their community.
Since measurements began in 2008, the large communities of Urban Honolulu, Provo-Orem, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, San Francisco-Oakland- Hayward, and Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington have consistently ranked high in well-being.