Seeing the city skyline filled with green happy faces finally puts my mind at ease!
Citizen Happiness Index
When playing Cities: Skylines, the happiest thing is seeing the screen filled with green wide-mouthed happy faces—the more, the better. These green happy faces can be understood as citizens saying, "Keep it up, I'm so happy!"
Happiness Index Mechanism
Green happy faces represent the citizen happiness index, showing the general satisfaction of citizens. When citizens' needs are met, they have jobs and places to spend money, they become happy and pay more taxes. Happiness also increases the chance of building upgrades. Unemployment, poor health, and lack of safety can lead to citizen dissatisfaction.
Happiness Index Categories
- Residential Happiness - 93%
- Commercial Happiness - 98%
- Office Happiness - 100%
- Industrial Happiness - 98%
How to Improve Citizen Happiness
You can increase happiness through the following methods: ensure all services are provided, such as schools, hospitals, police and fire stations, parks, etc. Taxes and policies also affect happiness. Happy citizens don't require high land values or building levels, but the happier the citizens, the more likely buildings are to upgrade.
Residential Areas
Ensure citizens feel safe, protected, and employed. Pollution is a disadvantage for residential areas. Hospitals need to be placed, sewage must be removed, waste managed, and noise pollution kept at acceptable levels. Residential happiness is less affected by taxes.
Commercial Areas
Commercial buildings require a well-educated workforce, goods to sell, product sales, taxes, and services. Lowering taxes can improve commercial happiness.
Industrial Areas
Industries need regular delivery of raw materials, sales of finished products, well-educated employees, and services. Tax cuts can improve happiness. Industrial happiness relies on strong supply chains and good traffic flow.
Office Areas
Offices need well-educated employees. Tax cuts can also improve happiness.
Global Happiness
Global happiness is the average of four types of happiness: residential, commercial, industrial, and office. It can be viewed from the "City Statistics" window. It is a weighted average based on the number of buildings in each specific area.