Last year, Minneapolis was the only US city to make the Gold List of the world’s happiest cities according to The Institute for the Quality of LIfe, and it made the list again… this year joined by New York City.
The BBC recently published an article about how the Nordic countries often come out on top, where Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden all had at least one city ranked in the Gold category… and Minnesota has the largest population of Norwegians, Finns and Swedes outside of Europe.
The BBC article said…
“Locals say the secret lies in it Nordic roots, creative energy and community spirit that bring all-season joy.”
Even though it gets cold in the winter and summers can be hot and humid, people here have learned to embrace the four seasons and take advantage of the many beautiful, natural spaces right within the city.
We went to the 4th Annual Sharpening of LOTI Pencil No. 2 last weekend, another indicator of the Minneapolis happiness factor. We embrace not only the lakes, parks and outdoors, but also the arts… and are goofy enough for 2,000 people to come out to celebrate the sharpening of a pencil sculpture! We embrace the arts enough to support three separate art festivals last weekend, and at least one almost every weekend throughout the summer.
One of the presenters described Minneapolis as one big park with lakes and houses scattered in it… a good tongue-in-cheek description.
Check out the full BBC article to learn more about Why Minneapolis is one of the world’s happiest places. I must admit that I agree!
Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results – shensrud@homesmsp.com
