The Happiest Place on Earth Might Surprise You
Ever get the feeling that maybe, just maybe you'd like to visit a place on Earth where everyone is happy? OK – we don't mean Bingo Village, which is of course our favorite online village...
We mean a place out in the real world.
For travelers, retirees and anyone looking to plant roots in the world's happiest place there's actually an annual report run by The Institute For Quality Life called the Happy City Index. And while we love Minneapolis, the Great Lakes city which remains the happiest place in North America, it surprised us that the world's happiest town is in a little known European area.
So, What Is The World's Happiest Place?
Believe it or not, Denmark lays claim to the world's happiest city. It's a town called Aarhus, an outdoor friendly spot with great public transportation and relative affordability. There are also colorful homes which dot the area's waterways, a world class art museum, a university and old world architecture that mixes in with amazing modern designs. It's a hub for designers and thinkers, for leisurely travelers, for the young and the young at heart.
The Aarhus Street Food Market is famous, too, meaning foodies are just as likely to enjoy this quaint town as they would Copenhagen.
Denmark’s Queen Margrethe has a summer vacation home in Aarhus, and photographers will enjoy landmarks such as the famous city clock tower, designed by Arne Jacobsen.
According to The Institute for Quality of Life, there's a pretty high bar for Aarhus to meet in order to get the top spot on its index of world's happiest places.
"The ranking was created on the basis of thousands of indicators thoroughly developed by our researchers that relate to the quality of life and the sense of happiness of its residents," the organization's website says. "Importantly, we do not analyze the happiness of an imaginary individual in every location in the world, but people actually living in these cities."