Italy’s Happiest Cities

Genoa and Cagliari top the rankings but what if Milan were on the coast?

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. The words immortalised in the United States Declaration of Independence remind us that the desire to be happy is a fundamental part of everyone’s life. Along with GDP, wealth and political freedoms, the degree of happiness that people enjoy is also worth taking into account in any measure of democracy’s health and efficiency. It was in this spirit that the UN declared the 20 March International Day of Happiness, which today [yesterday] celebrates its second anniversary. What then are the happiest places to live in Italy? And what are the factors that most influence Italian smiles? One way to answer these questions is to study what Italians write on social media. After all, 140 keystrokes are often more than enough to express joy or despondency and the iHappy index, which we have already mentioned in these pages on several occasions, was set up with precisely that aim in mind.

Analysis of more than 40 million tweets collected daily from Italy’s 110 provinces reveals that in 2013, Italy’s happiness capital was Genoa. The Ligurian capital’s province topped the rankings with 75.5% of its tweets classified as happy. Hard on Genoa’s heels was Cagliari with 75.1% while other top ten towns included Parma (fourth with 72.9%), Bari (seventh on 71.7%) and Bologna (71.4%), which came second in 2012 but last year slid down to ninth place.

However almost all of Italy’s larger cities have low happiness rankings, with only Florence emerging in 65th position on 58.2%. Rome was 21 places behind the Tuscan capital with 54% and we have to go down to the bottom of the table to find Turin (91st), Milan (93rd) and Naples (96th). In a nutshell, it would seem that metropolitan living in times of endless crisis is not a great recipe for cheerfulness, what with the stress from overwork - for those in work - traffic, high prices and air pollution. But Italy’s saddest province in 2013 was Aosta (44%) with Nuoro (45.8%) second-last for the second year running and Padua on 45.9%. Also in the doldrums were Venice (48%) and Olbia-Tempio (49.5%), which like neighbouring Nuoro was hard-hit by Cyclone Cleopatra. If we move on to regions, Puglia and Emilia-Romagna top the iHappy rankings with scores of about 66% whereas Lombardy and Veneto bring up the rear on 53%.

But what is it that makes Italians happy, or indeed sad? Weather more than anything else affects mood in Italy. Last winter, the country was sad on average (50.2%) during the cold months of January and February but when spring arrived in March 2013, the happiness rating soared to 67.4%. So the date chosen by the UN to celebrate its Day of Happiness looks spot on. The saddest day of the week is Monday (59.2%) while cup match days (Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and Saturdays, are the most cheerful. Happiness goes up perceptibly on holidays (+1.8%) but only if the holiday is not at the weekend. Otherwise it’s not a real holiday and just becomes a missed opportunity for a long weekend.

The happiest of public holidays is Christmas (iHappy +14%) but in Italy Mother’s Day also cheers people up (+11.1%), as does the day before pay day, a temporary boost that vanishes in 24 hours. Working out how much money is left after the bills have been paid probably isn’t that much fun. Putting the clock forward is depressing and generates anxiety, sending the happiness index plummeting by more than five points. And latitude is another factor that plays a part. As you move up the peninsula from south to north, happiness shrinks, except in coastal provinces. If Milan were at the seaside, its happiness rating would go up by 1.3 points.