This California city named 'happiest' in America for 3rd-straight year

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A drone view of the East Bay hills near the historic Niles district is seen in Fremont, Calif., on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022. (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)

LOS ANGELES - Some of the happiest people in America live in California, despite the high cost of living if you can believe it.

That's according to the 2023 Happiest Cities in America report released by personal finance website WalletHub, which compared more than 180 of the largest U.S. cities across 30 key indicators of happiness. The data set ranges from depression rate to income-growth rate to average leisure time spent per day.

Fremont, California ranked No. 1 for the third year in a row. The Bay Area city also has the lowest depression rate at 11.90%, which is 2.5 times lower than in Huntington, West Virginia, the city with the highest at 30.10%. Additionally, Fremont has the lowest separation and divorce rate, 9.02%, which is 4.6 times lower than in Cleveland, the city with the highest at 41.59%.

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Another Bay Area city - San Jose - ranked second, followed by Madison, Wisconsin, then Overland Park, Kansas. California's San Francisco and Irvine rounded out the top 5.

Other California cities that ranked in the top 20 were Oakland, Huntington Beach, and San Diego.

Los Angeles ranked No. 76.

Source: WalletHub

Here the top 20 Happiest Cities in America:

1. Fremont, CA
2. San Jose, CA
3. Madison, WI
4. Overland Park, KS
5. San Francisco, CA
6. Irvine, CA
7. Columbia, MD
8. Sioux Falls, SD
9. South Burlington, VT
10. Burlington, VT
11. Seattle, WA
12. Bismarck, ND
13. Oakland, CA
14. Huntington Beach, CA
15. San Diego, CA
16. Scottsdale, AZ
17. Minneapolis, MN
18. Yonkers, NY
19. Aurora, IL
20. Fargo, ND