PERHAPS SCENES LIKE THIS are why Topsham made a new “top ten” list naming it the second happiest place in Maine. This rainbow was photographed on Foreside Road near the Hunter farm in Topsham in 2012.
The town of Topsham’s Facebook page shares the news that the most recent top ten list rating the happiest towns in Maine puts Topsham at No. 2. Next door, Brunswick rounded out the list at No. 10.
“ Spring must be close because ‘top ten lists’ are proliferating,” the post notes. “While the methodology is always open to debate, how can you debate the results?”
The list comes a week after Smart Asset, a New York-based financial services company, ranked Topsham the fourth best community in which to retire, up from No. 16 last year.
Zippia, a career resource, prefaces the list by saying it analyzed 28 places in Maine “to determine where it’s all rainbows and sunshine.”
Kennebunk was ranked first, but at No. 2, Topsham still has a lot of happiness to go around.
On the other side of the rainbow spanning Androscoggin River is Brunswick, which made the list at No. 10. Bath ranked No. 17.
There are many approaches to measuring happiness, according to Zippia, and while money doesn’t buy it, it helps by removing anxieties which increases health.
The factors Zippia looked at included being well educated, having a job, a short commute to work, low cost of living, having a family, owning a home and the poverty rate.
Once it determined the criteria, Zippia looked at 28 places in Maine with more than 2,000 people and ranked them based on the seven criteria.
According to their list, Topsham has a population of 6,228 where 66.4 percent of people own their homes and 49 percent are married adults. Brunswick has a listed population of 15,275 where 57.4 percent of people own their home and 45.1 percent are married adults.
dmoore@timesrecord.com
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