After 20 years of interviewing centenarians and after many visits to “Blue Zones” (the areas of the world where people tend to live longer), Dan Boettner learned something he didn’t expect.

“When you take global data on happiness and do your research, you find that people who live near water are … happier than those who don’t live near the wet element,” says Buettner.

In fact, four of the five Blue Zones – Okinawa in Japan, Sardinia in Italy, Ikaria in Greece, and Nicoya in Costa Rica – are surrounded by water.

Although there are various theories as to why this happens, the end result is clear:

“It could be the calming effect of water, or it could be that extreme climatic conditions are mitigated because of water,” says Buettner. “But it seems to make us happier.”

And happiness isn’t the only positive effect of living by the water. A 2017 systematic review published in BMJ Open found that spending time near coasts, lakes or rivers “may improve health and wellbeing and prevent disease.”

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