Is Carlisle everyone's great expectation?

I feel like I've kept my silence on Carlisle being "Britain's happiest city" for a decent amount of time to now say it's been dignified. Needless to say, the news came as a shock to me too.
I first moved to Carlisle at the age of four, when my parents uprooted my gran, my brother and I to take over a new business nearby the centre of town. We lived in Newcastle-upon-Tyne at the time, and the new business venture had lured my parents from big-city culture to small-town comfort.
At the time they moved there was room for prosperity. Carlisle sounded like a nice place for them to bring up two children, and there weren't many other Chinese take-aways or restaurants in town.
But over two decades later and after living in other countries as well as other British towns and cities, I would say it's time to close the chapter on Carlisle. 
Friends have been debating for the past week (since The Times first ran RightMove's survey results) on the topic over Facebook, either mocking the very thought, or defending the city's character. One friend posted the quote that Carlisle is "possibly the whitest and least culturally sophisticated city in England but at least its [sic] a straight road to Newcastle". Harsh - but possibly true?
I first read the survey results on Facebook, after a close friend posted a photo - yes she was that shocked - of the article in The Times. I nearly spat my tea at my phone. My initial reaction suppressed, I then googled the article properly, and read on.
You see, the survey was not saying that everyone in Carlisle is happy really. I've had first-hand experience of meeting some of the most miserable people there are in the very city (miserable probably from their sheer ignorance). If ignorance, as they say is bliss, then I would say Carlisle is a very blissful city overall.
But how can bliss be measured? The answer is, of course, you can't. My own personal feelings on Carlisle aside, the survey results didn't deliver people's levels of happiness, they merely delivered confusing results on peoples' satisfaction levels.
Within my own close circle of friends from home, this has often been a topic of discussion. I've seen some of my most intelligent and successful friends leave Carlisle for further study or to work, and inevitably return back to their roots. Likewise, I have some incredibly intelligent and ambitious friends who left the day they left for university and don't set foot in Carlisle except for family occasions.
I've tried to figure out what it is that sets these two categories of friends apart. Success? Ambition? Drive? Happiness? But both of these categories of friends have found all of these things in  their own forms.
At the moment, I'm still trying to figure out what makes me happy, so actually, I'm envious of those who are already satisfied with their lives. The difference between my friends in Carlisle and me? They've found happiness.
A great man once told me "If you're comfortable, you're not being challenged, and life is about challenging yourself and your expectations".
I realised at that moment he was right. I like to live my life by that philosophy. Why do any of us do any of the things we push ourselves to do? We could always take the easier option and quit. Why don't we just quit? Why do we fight our battles?
The answer is the unknown. We do not know what is around the corner, and for some people, that is unacceptable. Sometimes it is nice just to have a routine and get on in life if one's found happiness.
But for those of us who haven't, I guess we just have to keep challenging ourselves and figure out what it is exactly we expect from life.