National Geographic has partnered with Resonance Consultancy, a global destination branding advisor, to identify the top small U.S. cities based on unconventional metrics, like green spaces, galleries, coffee shops, breweries, music venues, Instagrammable moments, all of which seem to lead to happiness. The cities were sorted into three groups based on their population: 40K-100K, 100K-200K, and 200K-600K. Resonance combined core statistics with social media data from Yelp, Instagram and other sources on nightlife, culture, restaurants, and the like to determine the city leaders for each population group in categories stretching from food to outdoor space, based on per capita results. Then Nat Geo’s traveler editors added in trending cities, or town’s that didn’t make Resonance’s list this year but look like they could in 2019. Here are the top 10 cities on the list:
- Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania
- Boulder, Colorado
- Greenville, South Carolina
- Anchorage, Alaska
- Annapolis, Maryland
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Reno, Nevada
- Healdsburg, California
- Santa Cruz, California
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