Portland, Maine, Ranks Among America’s Happiest Places to Live

The latest happiness report is out, and Portland has passed with flying colors.

WalletHub, a personal finance website, published a report on the happiest cities in America. Maine's largest city ranked rather high on the list.

Portland came in as the 17th happiest city in America and the happiest in all of New England. This is quite the achievement for our little city. Apparently, happy things do come in small packages.

The study included the two largest cities from every state, plus the top 150 cities in the nation. Portland's actual happiness score was 63.46. The scoring was based on a 100-point system. Three major categories were used: emotional & physical well-being, income & employment rank, and community & environment rank. These categories were broken down into 29 subcategories, making it as detailed as possible. You can read about the methodology here.

Portland's rankings were all found in the top 50. The lowest score was in emotional & physical well-being, where Portland finished with a ranking of 43rd. While lower than the others, it's still a solid top 50 placement.

Portland's second-best score was in community & environment. The city finished with a ranking of 27th. I'm surprised it was this low, considering the city's green space and overall safety. However, 27th is still one of the best scores, so perhaps I'm just being nitpicky.

Where Portland really shined was its income & employment rank, finishing as the third best in the nation. This category included metrics like job security, job satisfaction, and commute time. It's no surprise to see Portland finish so highly. However, it wasn't the highest-ranked Maine city. That went to Lewiston, which finished as the number one city in America in this category, though sadly ranked just 133rd overall when combining all the metrics.

Obviously, it's great to see Portland finish so strongly in this poll, but it shouldn't be a shock to any of us here. Portland is a wonderful city, full of life, culture, delicious food, and vibrancy. It's easily walkable, bike-friendly, and literally has no traffic. Small cities just know how to do it better.

So, how did the rest if New England score? Here are the results.

Burlington, VT - 23
South Burlington, VT - 54
Boston, MA - 58
Nashua, NH - 64
Manchester, NH - 88
Worcester, MA - 97
Providence, RI - 102
Bridgeport, CT - 105
New Haven, CT - 114
Warwick, RI - 119
Lewiston, ME - 133

WalletHub's happiest city was Fremont, CA, followed by Overland Park, KS, and San Jose, CA. The most miserable city on the list was the fine hamlet of Detroit. Hey, at least the Lions are good now. You can check out the entire list here.

40 Maine Restaurants That are Worth a Long Drive to Get to

Thanks to our great listeners we were able to compile a list of many of Maine's great restaurants, cafes, pubs and bakeries that are worth a long drive to get to.

These great spots can be found across the state and waiting for you to give them a try.

How many have you been to?

Gallery Credit: Chris Sedenka