Yonkers, NY is named the happiest town in New York State

According to an extensive WalletHub research project ranking the happiest cities in the country, no city in New York is in the top 10. Or the top 20. Or even the top 30. How does that sound? The first New York City on the list comes in at 44, and it’s on the Hudson River. We’ll get to the “winner” in a second, but my question is, how on earth do any of our other cities do it?

Judge “Happy”

There’s actually a simple answer why more Hudson Valley locations didn’t make the cut: our cities aren’t big enough. The folks at WalletHub used the country’s 150 most populous cities as a starting point, then made sure to include “at least two of the most populous cities in each state”. This excludes almost all towns, hamlets and villages in our region. They considered things like life expectancy, depression rates, income, poverty rates, and more. In the end, 4 New York City made the cut.

how we did

The Hudson River town that ranked highest in the state? Yonkers, NY, in Westchester County ranks 44th. While Yonkers is too far south for many to consider it a Hudson Valley town, I like to think the proximity to the river added to the happiness factor. Here’s how all of the New York cities on the list ranked:

44. Yonkers, New York

58. New York

131. Rochester, NY

136. Buffalo, New York

This is where these lists frustrate me. I mean, data is data, but are there people in New York really happier than the inhabitants of Beacon, for example? I spent a lot of time in both places, and only saw someone cursing a pigeon in one of them. Then again, it may be good to be excluded from the list, it may slow down migration to the city, if only for a little longer.

You want to spend more time away from home, but in the Hudson Valley? Check out this awesome local Airbnb below.