While Detroiters are certainly resilient, and a significant portion of the city’s culture is built on overcoming hardship, we don’t believe that you would ever see a true local say that Detroit is a genuinely unhappy city.
That being said, according to a new 2026 study by WalletHub, which measured over 180 cities across the country to find out which ones are the ‘happiest’, Detroit is the unhappiest city in the country.
Why is Detroit ranked the unhappiest city in America?
There were several factors that stood out in the study that led to Detroit getting the ranking that it did, which was #182 out of all 182 cities featured in the study.
Here is how the metrics behind Detroit’s ranking broke down:
- Overall Happiness Rank – 182 / 182
- Total Score – 29.55
- Emotional & Physical Well-Being Rank – 181 / 182
- Income & Employment Rank – 182 / 182
- Community & Environment Rank – 175 / 182
There were also a few notable metrics from the study that, unfortunately, painted Detroit in a particularly negative light:
- Ranked 182 / 182 for ‘Adequate-Sleep Rate’, the worst out of all cities in the study.
- Ranked 179 / 182 for ‘Sports-Participation Rate’, fourth worst in the study.
- Ranked 181 / 182 for ‘Separation & Divorce Rate’, second worst in the study.
What was the methodology of this study?
We wanted to get ahead of the curve and see for ourselves how this ranking was put together, so we could understand why Detroit was ranked so poorly.
First, we saw that the study featured 182 of the largest cities in the country; first were the 150 most populous in the nation, then, to ensure equal representation, the list of cities was amended to include at least two of the most populous cities from each state.
Second, each city was compared across three key dimensions:
- Emotional & Physical Well-Being
- Income & Employment
- Community & Environment
Across those three dimensions were 29 unique metrics that helped to determine a ‘happiness’ score for each city.
Those 29 metrics and their corresponding weight for the final score were as follows:
- Emotional & Physical Well-Being – 50 potential points
- Life-Satisfaction Index: 3.17 potential points
- Depression Rate: 6.35 potential points
- Suicide Rate: 3.17 potential points
- Adequate-Sleep Rate: 6.35 potential points
- Physical-Health Index: 6.35 potential points
- Sports-Participation Rate: 6.35 potential points
- Share of People Aged 12 or Older Who Used Marijuana in the Past Month: 1.59 potential points
- Retail Opioid Prescriptions Dispensed per 100 Persons: 0.79 potential points
- Share of Adults with Mental Health Not Good: 6.35 potential points
- Life Expectancy: 3.17 potential points
- Food-Insecurity Rate: 6.35 potential points
- Income & Employment – 25 potential points
- Income-Growth Rate: 3.13 potential points
- Share of Households Earning Annual Incomes Above $75,000: 1.56 potential points
- Poverty Rate: 1.56 potential points
- Job Satisfaction: 1.56 potential points
- 4+ Star Job Opportunities per Total People in the Labor Force: 1.56 potential points
- Job Security: 1.56 potential points
- Unemployment Rate: 3.13 potential points
- Underemployment Rate: 3.13 potential points
- Bankruptcy Rate: 3.13 potential points
- Weekly Work Hours: 3.13 potential points
- Commute Time: 1.56 potential points
- Community & Environment – 25 potential points
- WalletHub’s “Most Caring Cities” Ranking: 3.57 potential points
- Separation & Divorce Rate: 3.57 potential points
- Hate-Crime Incidents per Capita: 3.57 potential points
- Ideal Weather: 1.79 potential points
- Acres of Parkland per 1,000 Residents: 1.79 potential points
- Average Leisure Time Spent per Day: 7.14 potential points
- Well-Being “Community” Index Score: 3.57 potential points
So, while these metrics might tell you a different story, we still believe that this truly only makes sense if they interviewed Detroiters after the Lions got eliminated from playoff contention this past season.