» The 10 Best Cities In California To Attain Work-Life Balance

A healthy work-life balance is key to one’s happiness, even for people who love their jobs. Finding the right balance allows you to support yourself and live comfortably while still enjoying free time, hobbies, family, and friends.

Well Californians, where should you go to optimize your chances of a good work-life balance? Taking a look at data from the most recent American Community Survey from the Census Department, we can see that out of the 250+ largest cities in California, the following 10 have been the most successful in achieving the work-life balance most people aspire to have:

1. Goleta

2. South San Francisco

3. Orange

4. Santa Ana

5. Santa Barbara

6. Milpitas

7. Artesia

8. Redwood City

9. Poway

10. Camarillo

Here’s how the data was used to determine those 10 cities spend sufficient time at work and play. First, this set of criteria was identified from the American Community Survey:

Commute time (Shorter is better)
Hours worked per week (Shorter is better)
Size of household (Higher is better)
Unemployment rate (Lower is better)
Poverty rate (Lower is better)
Things to do per capita (based on Yelp data) (Higher is better)

So first, each place was ranked from 1-66 for each of the above criteria, with 1 being the best and 66 being the worst. Then, an average rank was found for each city using all criteria. Cities were then put in order of the lowest overall score to the highest. The 10 with the lowest overall scores are the ones on this list.

So basically, people in these 10 places have jobs if they want them, have short commutes, aren’t overworked, have families, and have a big selection of things to do nearby.

Scroll down to see a glimpse of each happy town and their populations.