Welcome to the happiest places in Pennsylvania.
Using Saturday Night Science and data, we determined the cities and towns with the most rainbows, butterflies, puppies, and unicorns.
You know, the places where people have jobs, white-picked fences, and friendly neighbors – unicorn cities.
After analyzing the 191 largest cities, we happily present the happiest cities in the Keystone State.
20.0% married households · 20.5% poverty · #1 happiest in Pennsylvania
Located in
Erie County, Pennsylvania
Edinboro is by far the happiest place in the state of Pennsylvania. Let’s see why. First off, having a solid family life is a good indication of how happy someone is. Lots of the residents of Edinboro aren’t missing out on love; more than 20% of them are married. Plus, the average commute time here is only about 17 minutes each way. That means a lot more time with the spouse and kids.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
6.0% married households · 38.1% poverty · #2 happiest in Pennsylvania
Located in
Centre County, Pennsylvania
Things look to be pretty pleasant in State College. Crime is really low here, and the percentage of married residents (6%) mean there’s lots of stability at home. In addition to those factors, there is a thriving amount of community involvement. Studies have shown that a key factor to happiness is when people volunteer, especially in their own neighborhoods.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
11.0% married households · 20.8% poverty · #3 happiest in Pennsylvania
Located in
Union County, Pennsylvania
The people who live in Lewisburg have a lot going for them. 42% of them have college degrees, and they command some of the highest salaries in PA. 11% of the people here are married. Most of these all tops in the entire state.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
30.0% married households · 13.1% poverty · #4 happiest in Pennsylvania
Located in
Centre County, Pennsylvania
Bellefonte is where you can bet there are lots of smiley and happy people all over town. Crime is essentially something that just doesn’t happen here very often. And when you can let your guard down and relax a little, the lack of stress really makes a difference. Same goes on the job front. Only 0.7% of residents here are out of work. Sounds like there are jobs for just about everyone who wants one. Which must be a good feeling to have.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
31.0% married households · 4.6% poverty · #5 happiest in Pennsylvania
If you want to see a bunch of happy people, go to Clarks Summit. It seriously looks like something out of a commercial. They have a 16 minute commute time, which means lots more time with the kids.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
29.0% married households · 7.3% poverty · #6 happiest in Pennsylvania
Located in
Berks County, Pennsylvania
For those who say that money doesn’t buy happiness, you’re half right. Studies have shown that people are happy up to a certain point when it comes to annual salaries, somewhere around $72,000 a year. After that, it doesn’t matter how much you make, you’re not going to be much happier. The residents of Wyomissing have that covered. Plus about 28% of households are married.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
33.0% married households · 10.3% poverty · #7 happiest in Pennsylvania
Located in
Cumberland County, Pennsylvania
Most of the people in New Cumberland have to be ‘plum’ happy. True happiness is ‘Home Sweet Home’ with your kids and spouse, being reminded to do chores, run errands and fold the clothes right.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
36.0% married households · 4.1% poverty · #8 happiest in Pennsylvania
Located in
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Less than 1.8% of the residents in Lititz are jobless, which is just about as low as you’ll see.
Incomes are steady, and commute times are really low as well. That really takes away the stress factors that stop folks from relaxing and enjoying their ‘down time’ to do the little things that matter: Walks in the park, time alone with a book and extra face time with the children.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
36.0% married households · 8.2% poverty · #9 happiest in Pennsylvania
Located in
Blair County, Pennsylvania
About 42% of residents in Hollidaysburg, PA have a college degree. While we’ve all heard the saying, ‘Ignorance is bliss,’ our argument is: Ignorance is also broke.
Not only are most of the residents of Hollidaysburg smart, they’re safe, too.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
12.0% married households · 20.4% poverty · #10 happiest in Pennsylvania
Located in
Chester County, Pennsylvania
In West Chester, most of the population is married, and most own their own homes. The commute times (20 minutes each way) might eventually start to turn the corners of those smiles sideways. But for now, it’s all roses in West Chester.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Pennsylvania’s statewide median.
Pennsylvania statewide median: $282,736
Pennsylvania statewide median: 11.7%
On the map
Where the happiest places in Pennsylvania are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How We Measured The Happiest Cities In The Keystone State
To rank the happiest places in Pennsylvania, we had to determine what criteria make people happy. It isn’t a stretch to assume that happy people earn great salaries, are relatively stress-free, and have a stable home life.
So we went to the Census’s American Community Survey 2020-2024 report for the happy criteria, added some Saturday Night Science, and generated the answer.
Here are the criteria we used to measure happiness:
- Percentage of residents with a college degree
- Average commute times
- Unemployment rates
- Cost of living
- % of married couples
- % of families with kids
- Poverty rate
After we decided on the criteria, we gathered the data for the 191 places in Pennsylvania with over 5,000 people.
We then ranked each place from one to 191 for each of the seven criteria, with a score of one being the happiest.
Next, we averaged the seven rankings into a Happy Index for each place with the lowest overall Happy Index “earning” the title “Happiest City In Pennsylvania.”
If you’d like to see the complete list of cities, happiest to saddest, scroll to the bottom of this post to see the unabridged chart.
We updated this article for 2026, and it’s our eleventh time ranking the happiest cities in Pennsylvania.
The full plate
Happiest Cities In Pennsylvania For 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Happy Index | Population | Poverty Level | Median Home Value | % Married | % Kids |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Edinboro | 41.86 | 5,440 | 20.5% | $288,726 | 20.0% | 17.5% |
| 2 | State College | 44.00 | 41,050 | 38.1% | $408,500 | 6.0% | 13.7% |
| 3 | Lewisburg | 44.64 | 5,257 | 20.8% | $326,711 | 11.0% | 11.6% |
| 4 | Bellefonte | 50.07 | 6,009 | 13.1% | $309,022 | 30.0% | 19.5% |
| 5 | Clarks Summit | 50.71 | 5,073 | 4.6% | $323,510 | 31.0% | 19.2% |
| 6 | Wyomissing | 53.64 | 11,172 | 7.3% | $377,346 | 29.0% | 19.9% |
| 7 | New Cumberland | 56.21 | 7,580 | 10.3% | $292,639 | 33.0% | 20.6% |
| 8 | Lititz | 59.29 | 9,619 | 4.1% | $458,674 | 36.0% | 23.8% |
| 9 | Hollidaysburg | 59.50 | 5,558 | 8.2% | $243,009 | 36.0% | 24.9% |
| 10 | West Chester | 61.29 | 20,666 | 20.4% | $657,113 | 12.0% | 13.2% |
| 11 | Carlisle | 65.36 | 21,852 | 15.1% | $329,620 | 18.0% | 18.8% |
| 12 | Hermitage | 65.36 | 16,041 | 10.9% | $213,565 | 42.0% | 19.7% |
| 13 | Moosic | 67.29 | 5,973 | 7.2% | $238,010 | 31.0% | 24.5% |
| 14 | Dunmore | 67.36 | 14,181 | 12.0% | $217,857 | 32.0% | 24.1% |
| 15 | Gettysburg | 69.79 | 8,254 | 14.1% | $366,471 | 11.0% | 20.4% |
| 16 | Grove City | 70.21 | 7,830 | 10.8% | $219,877 | 21.0% | 22.9% |
| 17 | Castle Shannon | 70.93 | 8,209 | 10.5% | $211,413 | 29.0% | 14.7% |
| 18 | Bloomsburg | 71.93 | 13,024 | 26.5% | $257,067 | 12.0% | 15.2% |
| 19 | Perkasie | 71.93 | 9,216 | 6.7% | $512,871 | 38.0% | 23.1% |
| 20 | Coraopolis | 72.00 | 5,417 | 11.5% | $302,086 | 27.0% | 18.6% |
| 21 | Camp Hill | 72.21 | 8,169 | 6.6% | $331,050 | 33.0% | 33.9% |
| 22 | Archbald | 72.29 | 7,404 | 8.2% | $242,130 | 47.0% | 29.0% |
| 23 | Conshohocken | 72.36 | 9,282 | 4.2% | $482,552 | 28.0% | 17.0% |
| 24 | Mount Joy | 72.57 | 8,344 | 9.1% | $296,067 | 42.0% | 27.3% |
| 25 | Mechanicsburg | 72.64 | 9,720 | 5.6% | $401,857 | 29.0% | 23.7% |
| 26 | Selinsgrove | 73.00 | 5,593 | 5.1% | $239,848 | 16.0% | 15.2% |
| 27 | Doyle | 73.00 | 8,341 | 5.5% | $586,247 | 21.0% | 22.6% |
| 28 | DuBois | 73.29 | 7,402 | 14.0% | $169,881 | 31.0% | 19.7% |
| 29 | Bridgeport | 73.43 | 5,174 | 18.2% | $352,990 | 18.0% | 33.3% |
| 30 | Bellevue | 73.64 | 8,128 | 9.4% | $236,965 | 27.0% | 18.8% |
| 31 | Palmyra | 74.07 | 7,755 | 11.6% | $343,038 | 30.0% | 28.3% |
| 32 | Somerset | 74.36 | 5,944 | 17.2% | $217,891 | 29.0% | 21.3% |
| 33 | Swoyersville | 74.43 | 5,048 | 9.7% | $206,255 | 39.0% | 13.3% |
| 34 | Birdsboro | 74.57 | 5,116 | 18.1% | $331,845 | 38.0% | 28.9% |
| 35 | Pittsburgh | 74.79 | 304,759 | 20.1% | $237,533 | 18.0% | 17.6% |
| 36 | Greensburg | 74.93 | 14,741 | 14.4% | $238,469 | 29.0% | 18.1% |
| 37 | Media | 75.36 | 5,870 | 4.1% | $632,298 | 20.0% | 15.3% |
| 38 | Millersville | 75.79 | 8,982 | 23.1% | $353,092 | 14.0% | 27.9% |
| 39 | West View | 76.14 | 6,533 | 8.8% | $252,296 | 34.0% | 26.9% |
| 40 | Economy | 76.64 | 9,005 | 6.5% | $278,625 | 50.0% | 21.7% |
| 41 | Carnegie | 76.64 | 7,978 | 11.7% | $224,034 | 27.0% | 16.1% |
| 42 | Columbia | 76.71 | 10,278 | 21.4% | $290,830 | 30.0% | 23.9% |
| 43 | South Williamsport | 77.14 | 6,211 | 4.4% | $191,786 | 42.0% | 23.8% |
| 44 | Indiana | 77.21 | 14,212 | 21.7% | $192,679 | 20.0% | 18.8% |
| 45 | Warren | 77.43 | 9,240 | 9.9% | $139,191 | 34.0% | 22.1% |
| 46 | New Holland | 77.64 | 5,780 | 10.7% | $408,128 | 33.0% | 31.6% |
| 47 | Blakely | 78.50 | 6,662 | 9.0% | $220,301 | 33.0% | 21.0% |
| 48 | Ambler | 78.79 | 6,847 | 6.0% | $686,428 | 30.0% | 35.2% |
| 49 | Collegeville | 78.93 | 5,247 | 7.1% | $568,662 | 22.0% | 20.1% |
| 50 | Oakmont | 80.36 | 6,702 | 5.4% | $333,787 | 40.0% | 25.9% |
| 51 | Duryea | 81.50 | 5,084 | 22.6% | $195,348 | 35.0% | 26.3% |
| 52 | Nazareth | 82.14 | 6,043 | 16.0% | $443,943 | 25.0% | 24.2% |
| 53 | Palmerton | 83.50 | 5,622 | 15.9% | $254,962 | 33.0% | 18.8% |
| 54 | Greenville | 83.71 | 5,523 | 16.5% | $154,867 | 32.0% | 25.0% |
| 55 | Phoenixville | 83.86 | 19,452 | 8.1% | $521,604 | 24.0% | 24.0% |
| 56 | Bethlehem | 84.43 | 77,956 | 15.7% | $351,353 | 17.0% | 23.6% |
| 57 | Lansdale | 85.21 | 19,011 | 11.3% | $496,720 | 23.0% | 30.7% |
| 58 | Franklin Park | 85.57 | 15,235 | 0.7% | $539,476 | 39.0% | 41.6% |
| 59 | Old Forge | 85.64 | 8,573 | 7.4% | $207,907 | 36.0% | 22.6% |
| 60 | St. Marys | 85.71 | 12,529 | 7.8% | $165,531 | 46.0% | 17.7% |
| 61 | Baldwin | 85.79 | 21,057 | 9.5% | $231,521 | 37.0% | 28.4% |
| 62 | Williamsport | 85.93 | 27,612 | 25.4% | $202,721 | 20.0% | 26.0% |
| 63 | Elizabet | 86.07 | 11,925 | 7.6% | $265,183 | 34.0% | 29.3% |
| 64 | Olyphant | 86.29 | 5,381 | 8.8% | $228,298 | 31.0% | 26.1% |
| 65 | Dormont | 87.36 | 8,063 | 7.9% | $246,408 | 28.0% | 18.5% |
| 66 | Ridley Park | 88.07 | 7,261 | 5.4% | $309,370 | 37.0% | 27.9% |
| 67 | Whitehall | 88.21 | 14,811 | 6.7% | $262,406 | 38.0% | 21.9% |
| 68 | Shippensburg | 89.07 | 5,620 | 10.8% | $197,415 | 20.0% | 24.0% |
| 69 | Middl | 89.36 | 9,632 | 12.4% | $179,529 | 22.0% | 22.1% |
| 70 | Souderton | 89.43 | 7,181 | 10.1% | $462,110 | 36.0% | 31.5% |
| 71 | Aliquippa | 89.57 | 9,079 | 22.9% | $199,055 | 27.0% | 17.1% |
| 72 | Ephrata | 89.79 | 13,772 | 7.9% | $249,296 | 33.0% | 27.8% |
| 73 | Morrisville | 89.79 | 9,752 | 8.6% | $547,936 | 20.0% | 26.7% |
| 74 | Emmaus | 90.00 | 11,889 | 7.3% | $385,740 | 37.0% | 32.6% |
| 75 | Lower Burrell | 90.14 | 11,633 | 7.8% | $200,396 | 45.0% | 26.0% |
| 76 | Crafton | 90.57 | 5,961 | 9.6% | $208,119 | 34.0% | 22.8% |
| 77 | Brookhaven | 91.00 | 8,331 | 4.1% | $265,657 | 38.0% | 26.0% |
| 78 | Plum | 91.79 | 26,723 | 3.6% | $252,851 | 46.0% | 30.0% |
| 79 | Shillington | 91.86 | 5,492 | 16.7% | $260,081 | 34.0% | 33.1% |
| 80 | Chambersburg | 91.93 | 22,319 | 15.3% | $286,441 | 20.0% | 26.1% |
| 81 | Hatboro | 92.43 | 8,283 | 4.4% | $440,910 | 35.0% | 29.7% |
| 82 | Erie | 92.57 | 93,850 | 23.3% | $198,492 | 22.0% | 25.4% |
| 83 | Forest Hills | 92.71 | 6,286 | 4.3% | $222,967 | 38.0% | 20.8% |
| 84 | Monessen | 92.79 | 6,780 | 20.8% | $80,829 | 36.0% | 24.3% |
| 85 | Canonsburg | 93.21 | 9,675 | 6.2% | $358,324 | 29.0% | 26.3% |
| 86 | Downin | 93.71 | 8,255 | 5.6% | $393,053 | 25.0% | 33.0% |
| 87 | Ellwood City | 93.79 | 7,532 | 9.5% | $151,015 | 36.0% | 21.9% |
| 88 | Jefferson Hills | 93.79 | 12,317 | 2.8% | $350,948 | 50.0% | 34.4% |
| 89 | Franklin | 94.36 | 5,984 | 17.3% | $126,692 | 32.0% | 23.0% |
| 90 | Kennett Square | 94.36 | 6,243 | 5.3% | $620,982 | 14.0% | 34.9% |
| 91 | Sunbury | 94.79 | 9,617 | 18.7% | $177,767 | 35.0% | 23.9% |
| 92 | Jeannette | 94.86 | 8,657 | 18.8% | $174,394 | 34.0% | 20.8% |
| 93 | Pleasant Hills | 94.86 | 8,399 | 4.8% | $265,880 | 42.0% | 30.1% |
| 94 | Scranton | 95.57 | 76,033 | 23.0% | $181,950 | 21.0% | 27.3% |
| 95 | Butler | 95.64 | 13,212 | 21.4% | $235,361 | 24.0% | 23.1% |
| 96 | Altoona | 95.79 | 43,196 | 16.6% | $134,583 | 35.0% | 26.2% |
| 97 | Johnstown | 95.79 | 18,087 | 31.9% | $86,108 | 25.0% | 20.7% |
| 98 | Tyrone | 95.86 | 5,377 | 11.5% | $155,310 | 40.0% | 21.5% |
| 99 | Berwick | 95.93 | 10,317 | 16.5% | $203,642 | 32.0% | 27.4% |
| 100 | Pittston | 96.21 | 7,626 | 20.0% | $201,703 | 22.0% | 23.4% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 191 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
There You Have It – The Happiest Cities In Pennsylvania
As we said earlier, trying to determine the most miserable cities in Pennsylvania is usually a subjective matter.
But if you’re analyzing cities where people are not stable, where you’re stuck in traffic, and no one spent the time to go to college, then this is an accurate list.
The happiest cities in Pennsylvania are Edinboro, State College, Lewisburg, Bellefonte, Clarks Summit, Wyomissing, New Cumberland, Lititz, Hollidaysburg, and West Chester.
