Are you happy now?
A digital publication called The Fiscal Times is among media and other sources calling Washington one of the happiest of the 50 states. We come in at a healthy No. 9. Our Evergreen State had spent more than five years out of the top 10.The two Dakotas, Nebraska, Minnesota and Montana make up the top five.
These latest Happy States standings are based on “more than 178,000 interviews with adults throughout 2014, tracking such factors as life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and basic necessities.” Another digital publication, this one called 24/7 Wall St., says that “the opposite was generally true for states with low well-being, where residents were more likely to have unhealthy lifestyles or limited access to basic necessities.” America’s five “Most Miserable States” — in descending order of contentedness — are Ohio, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, and West Virginia.
A healthy percentage of the data used to determine these rankings comes from a recent Gallup study. Specifically, the standings are constructed in large part out of the current Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. This index is billed, in fact, as nothing less than “a definitive measure and empiric database of real-time changes in well-being throughout the world.”
Also see:
The 10 Happiest States in America (March 3, 2014).
Gallup Publishes 2013 Well-Being Ranks: Where Does Your State Fall? (Feb. 23, 2014).