Happiest U.S. States to Live In
#1
Happiest U.S. States to Live In
Happiest States Revealed by New Research
By Jeanna Bryner, Managing Editor
posted: 17 December 2009 02:02 pm ET
Ever wondered if you'd be happier in sunny Florida or snow-covered Minnesota? New research on state-level happiness could answer that question.
Florida and two other sunshine states made it to the Top 5, while Minnesota doesn't show up until number 26 on the list of happiest states. In addition to rating the smile factor of U.S. states, the research also proved for the first time that a person's self-reported happiness matches up with objective measures of well-being.
Essentially, if an individual says they're happy, they are.
"When human beings give you an answer on a numerical scale about how satisfied they are with their lives, it is best to pay attention. Their answers are reliable," said Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England. "This suggests that life-satisfaction survey data might be very useful for governments to use in the design of economic and social policies," Oswald said.
The happy-states list, however, doesn't match up with a similar ranking reported last month, which found that the most tolerant and wealthiest states were, on average, the happiest. Oswald says this past is based on raw averages of people's happiness in a state, and so doesn't provide meaningful results.
"That study cannot control for individual characteristics," Oswald told LiveScience. "In other words, all anyone has been able to do is to report the averages state-by-state, and the problem with doing that is you're not comparing apples with apples because the people who live in New York City are nothing like the individuals living in Montana."
Rather, Oswald and Stephen Wu, an economist at Hamilton College in New York, statistically created a representative American. That way they could take, for example, a 38-year-old woman with a high-school diploma and making medium-wage who is living anywhere and transplant her to another state and get a rough estimate of her happiness level.
"Not much point in looking at the happiness of a Texas rancher compared to a nurse in Ohio," Oswald said.
The happiest states:
1. Louisiana
2. Hawaii
3. Florida
4. Tennessee
5. Arizona
6. Mississippi
7. Montana
8. South Carolina
9. Alabama
10. Maine
The scientists caution, however, that the top spot, Louisiana, might not reflect current levels of well-being since the data were collected before the disruption caused by Hurricane Katrina. They are confident that data for the other states does accurately reflect happiness levels.
Happiness measures
Their results come from a comparison of two data sets of happiness levels in each state, one that relied on participants' self-reported well-being and the other an objective measure that took into account a state's weather, home prices and other factors that are known reasons to frown (or smile).
The self-reported information came from 1.3 million U.S. citizens who took part in a survey between 2005 and 2008.
"We wanted to study whether people's feelings of satisfaction with their own lives are reliable, that is, whether they match up to reality — of sunshine hours, congestion, air quality, etc — in their own state," Oswald said.
The results showed the two measures matched up. "We were stunned when it first came up on our screens, because no one has ever managed to produce a clear validation before of subjective well-being, or happiness, data," Oswald said.
They were also surprised at the least happy states, such as New York and Connecticut, which landed at the bottom two spots on the list.
"We were struck by the states that come at the bottom, because a lot of them are on the East Coast, highly prosperous and industrialized," Oswald said. "That's another way of saying they have a lot of congestion, high house prices, bad air quality."
He added, "Many people think these states would be marvelous places to live in. The problem is that if too many individuals think that way, they move into those states, and the resulting congestion and house prices make it a non-fulfilling prophecy."
Would you be happier in another state?
Using both the subjective well-being results, which included individual characteristics like demographics and income, and the objective findings, the team could figure out how an individual would fare in a particular state.
"We can create a like-to-like comparison, because we know the characteristics of people in every state," Oswald said. "So we can adjust statistically to compare a representative person hypothetically put down in any state."
This new research will be published online on Dec. 17 by the journal Science.
1. Louisiana
2. Hawaii
3. Florida
4. Tennessee
5. Arizona
6. Mississippi
7. Montana
8. South Carolina
9. Alabama
10. Maine
11. Alaska
12. North Carolina
13. Wyoming
14. Idaho
15. South Dakota
16. Texas
17. Arkansas
18. Vermont
19. Georgia
20. Oklahoma
21. Colorado
22. Delaware
23. Utah
24. New Mexico
25. North Dakota
26. Minnesota
27. New Hampshire
28. Virginia
29. Wisconsin
30. Oregon
31. Iowa
32. Kansas
33. Nebraska
34. West Virginia
35. Kentucky
36. Washington
37. District of Columbia
38. Missouri
39. Nevada
40. Maryland
41. Pennsylvania
42. Rhode Island
43. Massachusetts
44. Ohio
45. Illinois
46. California
47. Indiana
48. Michigan
49. New Jersey
50. Connecticut
51. New York
By Jeanna Bryner, Managing Editor
posted: 17 December 2009 02:02 pm ET
Ever wondered if you'd be happier in sunny Florida or snow-covered Minnesota? New research on state-level happiness could answer that question.
Florida and two other sunshine states made it to the Top 5, while Minnesota doesn't show up until number 26 on the list of happiest states. In addition to rating the smile factor of U.S. states, the research also proved for the first time that a person's self-reported happiness matches up with objective measures of well-being.
Essentially, if an individual says they're happy, they are.
"When human beings give you an answer on a numerical scale about how satisfied they are with their lives, it is best to pay attention. Their answers are reliable," said Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick in England. "This suggests that life-satisfaction survey data might be very useful for governments to use in the design of economic and social policies," Oswald said.
The happy-states list, however, doesn't match up with a similar ranking reported last month, which found that the most tolerant and wealthiest states were, on average, the happiest. Oswald says this past is based on raw averages of people's happiness in a state, and so doesn't provide meaningful results.
"That study cannot control for individual characteristics," Oswald told LiveScience. "In other words, all anyone has been able to do is to report the averages state-by-state, and the problem with doing that is you're not comparing apples with apples because the people who live in New York City are nothing like the individuals living in Montana."
Rather, Oswald and Stephen Wu, an economist at Hamilton College in New York, statistically created a representative American. That way they could take, for example, a 38-year-old woman with a high-school diploma and making medium-wage who is living anywhere and transplant her to another state and get a rough estimate of her happiness level.
"Not much point in looking at the happiness of a Texas rancher compared to a nurse in Ohio," Oswald said.
The happiest states:
1. Louisiana
2. Hawaii
3. Florida
4. Tennessee
5. Arizona
6. Mississippi
7. Montana
8. South Carolina
9. Alabama
10. Maine
The scientists caution, however, that the top spot, Louisiana, might not reflect current levels of well-being since the data were collected before the disruption caused by Hurricane Katrina. They are confident that data for the other states does accurately reflect happiness levels.
Happiness measures
Their results come from a comparison of two data sets of happiness levels in each state, one that relied on participants' self-reported well-being and the other an objective measure that took into account a state's weather, home prices and other factors that are known reasons to frown (or smile).
The self-reported information came from 1.3 million U.S. citizens who took part in a survey between 2005 and 2008.
"We wanted to study whether people's feelings of satisfaction with their own lives are reliable, that is, whether they match up to reality — of sunshine hours, congestion, air quality, etc — in their own state," Oswald said.
The results showed the two measures matched up. "We were stunned when it first came up on our screens, because no one has ever managed to produce a clear validation before of subjective well-being, or happiness, data," Oswald said.
They were also surprised at the least happy states, such as New York and Connecticut, which landed at the bottom two spots on the list.
"We were struck by the states that come at the bottom, because a lot of them are on the East Coast, highly prosperous and industrialized," Oswald said. "That's another way of saying they have a lot of congestion, high house prices, bad air quality."
He added, "Many people think these states would be marvelous places to live in. The problem is that if too many individuals think that way, they move into those states, and the resulting congestion and house prices make it a non-fulfilling prophecy."
Would you be happier in another state?
Using both the subjective well-being results, which included individual characteristics like demographics and income, and the objective findings, the team could figure out how an individual would fare in a particular state.
"We can create a like-to-like comparison, because we know the characteristics of people in every state," Oswald said. "So we can adjust statistically to compare a representative person hypothetically put down in any state."
This new research will be published online on Dec. 17 by the journal Science.
1. Louisiana
2. Hawaii
3. Florida
4. Tennessee
5. Arizona
6. Mississippi
7. Montana
8. South Carolina
9. Alabama
10. Maine
11. Alaska
12. North Carolina
13. Wyoming
14. Idaho
15. South Dakota
16. Texas
17. Arkansas
18. Vermont
19. Georgia
20. Oklahoma
21. Colorado
22. Delaware
23. Utah
24. New Mexico
25. North Dakota
26. Minnesota
27. New Hampshire
28. Virginia
29. Wisconsin
30. Oregon
31. Iowa
32. Kansas
33. Nebraska
34. West Virginia
35. Kentucky
36. Washington
37. District of Columbia
38. Missouri
39. Nevada
40. Maryland
41. Pennsylvania
42. Rhode Island
43. Massachusetts
44. Ohio
45. Illinois
46. California
47. Indiana
48. Michigan
49. New Jersey
50. Connecticut
51. New York
#3
DC is where your nations capital is located District of Columbia... It is a district that actually is separate from the states around it, including Maryland.
And I would say overinflated cost of living, crime rates in some areas, etc is what hurts cali, even with the great weather and landscape. I have spent a good amount of time there and loved it.. but would not live there. Just not my thing.
Minneapolis has its own overinflated cost of living as well.. and the cold hurts it. Not to mention people tend to be way too uptight and worried about keeping up with the yuppies next door here IMO.
The south tends to be more laid back and people more content in many areas. Not to mention warmer! I do miss living further south. Plus, I get tired of hearing how much "smarter" people that grow up in the north are.. yet not seeing that trend most of the time I have lived here :D
Alaska... I guess people that live there are the ones that REALLY want to live there.. hence a higher percentage of hapiness ? I know that the month I spent in Fairbanks made me HATE That place. You could not pay me enough to live there ever.. ever... did I say ever? No offense to those that do... but the relative high crime rate, ridiculous cost of living/income ratio, etc just made me depressed being there for 30 days...
And I would say overinflated cost of living, crime rates in some areas, etc is what hurts cali, even with the great weather and landscape. I have spent a good amount of time there and loved it.. but would not live there. Just not my thing.
Minneapolis has its own overinflated cost of living as well.. and the cold hurts it. Not to mention people tend to be way too uptight and worried about keeping up with the yuppies next door here IMO.
The south tends to be more laid back and people more content in many areas. Not to mention warmer! I do miss living further south. Plus, I get tired of hearing how much "smarter" people that grow up in the north are.. yet not seeing that trend most of the time I have lived here :D
Alaska... I guess people that live there are the ones that REALLY want to live there.. hence a higher percentage of hapiness ? I know that the month I spent in Fairbanks made me HATE That place. You could not pay me enough to live there ever.. ever... did I say ever? No offense to those that do... but the relative high crime rate, ridiculous cost of living/income ratio, etc just made me depressed being there for 30 days...
Last edited by engifineer; 12-19-2009 at 07:10 PM.
#4
I'm surprised to see Cali that low on the list as well. Especially since that's where I want to move next. I expected the southern states to rank highly and they did, all in the top 19.
#5
california citizens are sad because of their retard laws
chicago citizens are sad because we have the highest taxes in the nation
new york citizens are sad because of the living cost
Hawaii should be number one
chicago citizens are sad because we have the highest taxes in the nation
new york citizens are sad because of the living cost
Hawaii should be number one
#6
Actually, from a couple of lifetime HI residents I knew.. I can understand why in a way. They couldnt wait to leave HI when they got out of college because they said that while it is the most beautiful place they could think of to live in the US, they felt isolated from the rest of the country. Not much area, seeing the same thing day in and day out, no driving over to the next state or long road trips. Then, for anyone that likes to drive, add in the most ridiculously low speed limits in the world Not exactly cheap to live in either
So while I thought they were nuts for wanting to leave, it made more sense after hearing their reasoning. And kind of hard to argue with it since they had spent their lives there and I hadnt.
There is no perfect place to live.. always a bad side to it in some way I guess.
So while I thought they were nuts for wanting to leave, it made more sense after hearing their reasoning. And kind of hard to argue with it since they had spent their lives there and I hadnt.
There is no perfect place to live.. always a bad side to it in some way I guess.
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