LOS ANGELES, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Boulder, a city at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in northern Colorado, was listed by the National Geographic Magazine (NGM) as the happiest city of the United State in 2017.
According to the list published Wednesday, Boulder was chosen because of its "sense of community, access to nature, preservation policies, sustainable urban development."
The residents of the city, home of the main campus of the University of Colorado, overwhelmingly feel "active and productive every day."
The study was conducted by the magazine and Gallup's social scientists. They developed an index with 15 metrics, from eating healthy, learning something new every day to civic engagement, financial security, vacation time, and even dental checkups, that assesses measurable expressions of happiness.
The study, published every year, drew on nearly 250,000 interviews conducted with adults from 2014 to 2015 in 190 metropolitan areas across the United States. In 2016, San Luis Obispo of California was crowned the happiest city of the country.
The NGM emphasized that more people walk to work per capita in Boulder than in any other city, meanwhile the city with 100,000 residents has low rates of smoking and obesity, high rates of exercise, over more than 300 miles (510 km) of dedicated bikeways.
Boulder, located about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Denver, established sister-city relationship with China's Lhasa from 1987. It's also Tibet's only sister city in the United States.
