City officials are probably not going to brag about this one. Business Week wanted to find out which are the the nation’s unhappiest cities. It used criteria such as green space, crime rates, unemployment, and divorce, but weighted things like depression (based on antidepressant sales) and suicide rates more heavily. Oh, yes, it also considered the number of cloudy days per year.
Portland is number one! And not just on number of cloudy days, but also on antidepressants. It is pretty high up on suicide rates too.
By comparison, Detroit, which nobody would use as a model city, has the lowest suicide rate and one of the lowest rates of depression. The magazine still ranks Detroit number 4 based on its high crime and unemployment rates.