{"id":185397,"date":"2026-03-10T09:21:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T09:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/185397\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T09:21:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T09:21:07","slug":"this-is-floridas-most-miserable-city-researchers-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/185397\/","title":{"rendered":"This is Florida\u2019s most miserable city, researchers claim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 WalletHub has revealed its 2026 ranking of the happiest cities in America, examining which areas in the nation spark the most joy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">To do this, researchers said they looked at indicators like depression rates, leisure time, and even income growth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 ewwUYq\">\u201cResearch shows that having more money only increases your happiness until you\u2019re making at least $75,000 per year &#8211; anything more you earn likely won\u2019t have an impact.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 ewwUYq\">Therefore, when deciding where to live to maximize your happiness, you\u2019ll want to pick a city that offers more than just a decent average income. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 ewwUYq\">The ideal city provides conditions that foster good mental and physical health, like reasonable work hours, short commutes, good weather, and caring neighbors.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>WalletHub Analyst Chip Lupo<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">During WalletHub\u2019s latest <a href=\"https:\/\/wallethub.com\/edu\/happiest-states\/6959\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/wallethub.com\/edu\/happiest-states\/6959\">state-by-state happiness ranking<\/a>, researchers found that Florida ranked No. 14 when compared to the rest of the nation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">However, when looking at its major metros, Florida lagged a bit more. The highest-ranked city on this list is Cape Coral, all the way down at No. 41.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Cities like Tallahassee and Hialeah also performed poorly, coming in at No. 100 and No. 101, respectively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">But the lowest-ranked city on this year\u2019s list is Jacksonville, which comes in all the way down at No. 125.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">[BELOW: The top attraction in the U.S. can be found on this Florida island]<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Jacksonville struggled particularly in terms of emotional\/physical well-being, income, and employment factors. That said, it performed a bit better when it came to community and environment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Meanwhile, the full happiness ranking of Florida cities is as follows:<\/p>\n<p>RankCityTotal Score41Cape Coral60.2742Pembroke Pines60.2453Ft. Lauderdale58.3961Port St. Lucie57.1467Orlando56.5968Tampa56.4678Miami55.7491St. Petersburg54.23100Tallahassee53.39101Hialeah53.29125Jacksonville48.92<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">[BELOW: Publix is no longer Florida\u2019s top grocery. Here\u2019s who took No. 1]<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 WalletHub has revealed its 2026 ranking of the happiest cities in America, examining which areas&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[104,6919,28,30,29,785,116,123,139,232,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-185397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-features","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-florida-ranked","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-miami","16":"tag-orlando","17":"tag-tallahassee","18":"tag-tampa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}