In Canada, at least, happiness surveys tend to find the cheaper, smaller, more rural areas to be the happiest. Theory for this is less stress due to finances, shorter commute times, and less people to deal with overall (foot traffic, road traffic, lineups, etc). So, maybe cheap rent and short commutes are some of the elements of a happy life.
Or maybe people in rural areas are more likely to be financially secure and own their property. There are many more impoverished people in cities who would skew a 'happiness' survey for a city. It would be interesting to compare people with similar takehome pay rural to urban.
That kind of sounds like "rural people are better with money than the city slickers." But, when I look at places like Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri there seem be a fair number of bankruptcies. I imagine we can look this up if we're so inclined. Is there a correlation between level of education and number of bankruptcy filings?
Believe I included this in my original comment. It's likely a big contributor in these types of survey. It's a little easier on your health to not be living paycheck to paycheck.
