Feature Article |
Happiness Is:
By Luke Dittrich
Find Your Happy Place
A geographic breakdown of our comparative levels of bliss.
Christopher Peterson, creator of the Authentic Happiness Inventory Questionnaire, keeps a national database of respondents’ scores, broken down by ZIP code. Greater Boston, no surprise, lags behind the national average in joyousness (which is 29 out of a possible 50 points). But from town to town, there’s some interesting variation. (According to Peterson’s data, the Cape and Islands are the area’s gloomiest places, though that comes from a single survey in which the respondent scored a miserable 18.)
SOUTH SHORE
33
Avon, Brockton, Bridgewater, Duxbury, Holbrook, North Pembroke, Plymouth... (023 ZIP codes)
BROOKLINE AND THE WESTERN SUBURBS
28.3
Brookline, Lexington, Newton, Wellesley, Weston… (024 ZIP codes)
BOSTON AND ENVIRONS
27.6
Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Medford, Quincy, Somerville… (021 ZIP codes)
NORTH SHORE
26.4
Beverly, Danvers, Gloucester, Lynn, Marblehead, Newburyport, Salem… (019 ZIP codes)
Originally published in Boston magazine, September 2006
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