Fremont Named America's Happiest City for 2025, WalletHub Study Finds

FREMONT, CA — Fremont has once again earned the title of America's happiest city, according to WalletHub's latest study released this week. This marks Fremont's continued dominance, having consistently secured the top spot every year since 2020.

WalletHub, a personal finance website known for its annual rankings, evaluated 182 of the largest U.S. cities across 29 key indicators of happiness. These indicators included emotional and physical well-being, income-growth rates, job satisfaction, depression and suicide rates, and overall life satisfaction.

"Fremont has consistently ranked as the happiest city in America in WalletHub's report since 2020," said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. "It secured the top spot again this year, driven by its outstanding showing in emotional and physical well-being, ranking first in that category. However, it ranked relatively low in income and employment at 93rd, showing that happiness isn't solely tied to financial matters."

Despite its lower ranking in employment-related metrics, Fremont boasts the highest share of households earning more than $75,000 annually. The city also ranked first nationwide for life satisfaction among residents, fourth-highest for average life expectancy, and fifth-lowest for depression rates.

California cities performed notably well overall. Of the top ten happiest cities listed by WalletHub for 2025, five are located in California—with San Jose and Irvine following closely behind Fremont at second and third respectively. San Francisco and Huntington Beach also made the top ten.

The full top ten happiest cities in America for 2025 according to WalletHub are:

Fremont, California (73.54 points)

San Jose, California (69.34 points)

Irvine, California (69.32 points)

Sioux Falls, South Dakota (68.66 points)

Overland Park, Kansas (66.93 points)

Lincoln, Nebraska (66.59 points)

Madison, Wisconsin (65.83 points)

Scottsdale, Arizona (65.17 points)

San Francisco, California (64.96 points)

Huntington Beach, California (64.70 points)

WalletHub's findings underscore that while financial stability contributes to happiness, factors such as emotional health and community well-being play significant roles as well—a combination that Fremont continues to exemplify year after year