Fremont has retained its “Happiest City” title in 2026, at least by WalletHub standards. When I hear this news, my first reaction is “Fremont, really?” Not somewhere cool like Carmel? And then, “So, is this as good as it gets?”
It’s a little weird to hear your own hometown dubbed the happiest in America. Most people dream about growing up and discovering their own home where they feel they truly belong. If your hometown is already the standard, that limits your options.
What is happiness anyway? WalletHub lists household income (OK, but we all know that depends heavily on overall cost of living), low divorce rates and high life expectancy (those two I can vibe with). But it’s hard to put a dollar amount or a number on happiness. It means different things to different people.
This reminds me of my college reading of Milton’s Paradise Lost, which tells about the Biblical rebellion of Satan against God and the exile of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.
Satan himself can never return to the original “happiest city,” AKA Heaven, but comforts himself with the thought, “The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.” However, this later comes back to haunt him as he reflects, “Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell.”
Essentially, he discovers the adage: Wherever you go, there you are. If you’re a stinker like Milton’s Satan, anywhere you go is going to suck because your character flaws make you (and everybody else) miserable.
Even in our official happiest city we’re allotting a Motel 6 for 150 emergency shelters because so many are affected by homelessness. For sure, we have some problems. I think a statistics-based designation like “happiest city” can be useful as a reminder that your own city isn’t a uniquely terrible place while other parts of America are havens of good vibes and cheap housing. It could even be a source of positive competition and civic pride.
But in the end, you are the creator of your own happiness. Paradise Lost teaches us that even the perfect environment doesn’t absolve us of moral responsibility. It’s scary to think we could lose everything by our own selfishness and hubris. But the flip side is that we have discernment and free will.
Whatever our city, we can find some happiness and work to make it a little happier next year than last year.
One metric used to determine “happy” is a low divorce rates.
H1B visa holders are not impacted by divorce. A divorce terminates H-4 dependent status immediately upon the final decree, giving the ex-spouse a limited grace period (often 30 days) to change status or leave the U.S..
If you are the victim of domestic violence, contact http://www.narika.org or https://save-dv.org/
Love the article! Happiness is really ambiguous, and no material possesions can truly make you happy at the “core”. I grew up in Pleasanton, not many miles from Fremont during a time when practically zero people of color resided there, and happiness appeared to be everywhere in the vein of prosperity. As an African American entrepreneur and ad executive, when I was inspired to create the Happy Fremont brand and celebratory concept of America’s Happiest City, I first noticed that African Americans were almost an invisible demographic, yet the universe gifted me the idea to create and own the trademarked Happy Fremont brand, literally from the outside of the country’s happiest city. I say this to say, I am an overall happy person, certainly not because of any material possessions, but due to my spiritual happiness, a connection to the creator of the universe, and Im happy about that to my core.