Study: Beavercreek is happiest city in Ohio

Employment rates, cost of living, crime among factors used in study.

Beavercreek residents have an extra reason to celebrate this holiday season.

Their city has been named the happiest in Ohio by Homesnacks.net.

The study looked at the state’s 50 largest cities and took into account employment rates, cost of living, crime, percentage of residents with college degrees and the number of sunny days, among other factors. It used information from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Sperling’s Best Places and Twitter, as well as FBI crime data.

Mayor Brian Jarvis said he wasn’t surprised to see the city top the list.

“When you look at things that add to people’s quality of life — that’s the low crime rate, the low congestion, financial security, cost to live in a place — you know, if it’s reasonable, people are happy,” he said.

According to the study, the city has the 22nd overall lowest crime rate, 76 percent of residents have college degrees, 72 percent of people living in the city own their homes and six in 10 are happily married.

Jarvis said the city has seen its population rise and its unemployment fall since the study was conducted.

“We’re now over approximately 46,000 people which is a huge gain and our unemployment rate, even though the article said it was 4 percent, we’re now down to 3.5 percent, so I’m sure that adds to people’s happiness as well,” Jarvis said.

This isn’t the first time the city has been named happiest in the state. Credit Donkey named the city the happiest in the state last year after looking at crime rates, commutes, income and number of restaurants per capita among other factors.

Jarvis said the city council’s main priorities play directly into people’s happiness.

“We do focus on public safety with our police and fire. We do focus on education. We have good schools here. We do focus on our streets and roads, which is the infrastructure, and we do focus on our parks and recreation activity,” he added.

Homesnacks.net named Springboro the third-happiest city in the state.

STAFF AND CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS (Clockwise from top left): Lacrosse is one of the activities offered by the Beavercreek Parks department; The Beavercreek Popcorn Festival has been a tradition for decades; Wright State Way, the pedestrian bridge over I-675, was officially opened this...