Popular imagery and various social science theories argue that urban life generates a sense of despair or malaise. While Americans tend to express preferences for small communities, secondary analysis of several American and foreign surveys fails to indicate that community size fosters personal unhappiness. If any result is substantial, it is that the effect, worldwide, is of rural malaise. American and French data do reveal, however, that, after controls for covariates, there is a small trend for the largest metropolises to be disproportionately places of malaise. Breaking down the samples by migration history suggests that this is owing to the ability of some to move to idealized communities.