Chester County Ranked The 4th Happiest County In America
By Ray Boyd
CHESTER COUNTY, Pa. (CBS) -- Are you happy? Do you live in Chester County?
If you can answer "yes," to the two questions above, then you are contributing to America's 4th happiest county according to SmartAsset.
The company conducted a study to find out what counties in the U.S. are the happiest. The formula was based on positive and negative factors relating to counties with 50,000 or more people.
The positive factors were marriage rate, income ratio, life expectancy and physical activity rate. The negative factors were poverty rate, unemployment rate, divorce rate and personal bankruptcy rate.
High numbers were a good sign for the positive factors, as were low numbers for the negative ones.
The study found that Chester County was one of the happiest in the country.
According to the study, Chester County had an income ratio of 2.3. Income ratio is the ratio of median income to the cost of living.
Chester County was noted as having the highest income of any Pennsylvania County and the average life expectancy there is over 80.
Chester County was not the only county in the are with a good spot on the list. Hunterdon, Morris and Somerset counties in New Jersey all cracked the Top 10 at 5, 6, and 9 respectively.
Montgomery County, Pa came in at 23.
The study also concluded that the East Coast seems to be happier than the West Coast with seven of the Top 10 counties being in the east, compared to only one out west. Also, marriage seems to play a big role in happiness as every county in the Top 25 had a marriage rate north of 50 percent.
