Tel Aviv ranked as world's happiest city

Tel Aviv is the happiest city in the world, according to a ranking by TheTravel blog published on last week.

TheTravel cited the White City's "rich cultural heritage, kind people, and abundance of food, shopping, and learning," noting that Tel Aviv has become "a global hot spot for spring break and vacationing as a whole."

The travel blog also noted Tel Aviv's progressive ideologies as a reason for its high ranking, pointing to the large LGBTQ community in the city and the draw for LGBTQ visitors.

Tel Aviv was followed by Madrid, Fremont, San Jose, Stockholm, Toronto, Amsterdam, Reykjavík, Bergen and Copenhagen on the list.

Maybe it's the sun, maybe its the people (or maybe its the coffee). Who knows? In any case Tel Aviv was chosen as the happiest city in the World Thanks @TheTravel_com_! pic.twitter.com/3f9FdsAYku

— Israel ישראל (@Israel) June 19, 2023

The @Israel Twitter account run by the Foreign Ministry welcomed the ranking, tweeting "Maybe it's the sun, maybe its the people (or maybe its the coffee). Who knows? In any case Tel Aviv was chosen as the happiest city in the World. Thanks @TheTravel_com_!"

Israel fourth happiest country in the world

Israel ranked fourth in the 2022 World Happiness Report by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, although it ranked low on some of the factors in the report, including "experiences of calmness" where it ranked second to last.

In the 2019 World Happiness Report, which focused for the first time on cities, Tel Aviv was ranked the eighth happiest city worldwide. Tel Aviv and Zurich (4th) were the only top 10 cities not located in either the Nordic countries, Australia or New Zealand. Jerusalem was the 33rd happiest city.

Eytan Halon contributed to this report.