Are you living in a state of happiness?

[bull]

http://www.livescience.com/culture/091110-fifty-happy-states.html

I guess John Denver was full of crap:

Here are the 50 U.S. states in order of their well-being scores, which are out of 100 points.

1. Utah: 69.2
2. Hawaii: 68.2
3. Wyoming: 68
4. Colorado: 67.3
5. Minnesota: 67.3
6. Maryland: 67.1
7. Washington: 67.1
8. Massachusetts: 67
9. California: 67
10. Arizona: 66.8
11. Idaho: 66.8
12. Montana: 66.7
13. New Hampshire: 66.7
14. Vermont: 66.6
15. Virginia: 66.5
16. Nebraska: 66.4
17. New Mexico: 66.3
18. Oregon: 66.3
19. Connecticut: 66.3
20. Alaska : 66.2
21. Texas: 66.1
22. Kansas: 66.1
23. Georgia: 66.0
24. Wisconsin: 65.9
25. New Jersey: 65.8
26. South Carolina: 65.7
27. Iowa: 65.6 - 27/50
28. North Dakota: 65.5
29. Maine: 65.5 - 29/50
30. Florida: 65.3 - 30/50
31. Illinois: 65.2 - 31/50
32. Pennsylvania: 64.9
33. Alabama: 64.9
34. North Carolina: 64.8
35. New York: 64.7
36. Delaware: 64.7
37. Rhode Island: 64.6
38. Nevada: 64.5
39. South Dakota: 64.3
40. Louisiana: 64.2
41. Michigan: 64.0
42. Tennessee: 64.0
43. Oklahoma: 64.0
44. Missouri: 63.8
45. Indiana: 63.3
46. Arkansas: 62.9
47. Ohio: 62.8
48. Mississippi: 61.9
49. Kentucky: 61.4
50. West Virginia: 61.2

[Blown70]

ND number 28.....

[BigRed66]

Hawaii #2, I get (though it oughta be #1, based on living in Utah vs. living in Hawaii...no brainer, right?), but my beloved Ohio is #47? W.Va. last? Wow.

Blown70, my brother lives in Grand Forks (UND Masters Alum) and teaches at Turtle Mountain Community College in Belcourt, and he loves the laid-back, "Oh, yah, youbetcha" lifestyle up there, so ND at #28 makes sense.

Finally, I like, weather-wise:happiness ND vs. FLA (-30 vs. 80) 

[OneofNoneRT]

This is crap.. Half the country would rather live in New jersey than Florida!  .. Oh I get it they New jersey people Think its better in New jersey than Florida.. No Thats not right  The people in New jersey like there life there better than the people in Florida like there life there..Confusing, Who put this together? are we sure they asked the same questions??   

[bordin34]

This is crap.. Half the country would rather live in New jersey than Florida!  .. Oh I get it they New jersey people Think its better in New jersey than Florida.. No Thats not right  The people in New jersey like there life there better than the people in Florida like there life there..Confusing, Who put this together? are we sure they asked the same questions??   

Duh, we can get away from all the old people and NJ is better than Florida

[OneofNoneRT]

Funny,, uhh whats under your screen name..

[Silver R/T]

Washington in top 10? I don't believe so, whoever does these ratings is apparently not living in Spokane lol. Overpopulated with California immigrants, unemployed, crackheads/methheads, welfare scum...

[Mike DC]

 
John Denver wasn't as simple as he seemed.  They say he was prone to fits of major depression.  I think his songs were wishful thinking more than a reflection of how he actually felt most of the time.





As for 50 state happiness - I'd be interested to see those figures compared with the climates of those various states.  IMHO what we call "seasonal affective disorder" is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how weather affects people's minds. 

[BigBlackDodge]

This is crap.. Half the country would rather live in New jersey than Florida!  .. Oh I get it they New jersey people Think its better in New jersey than Florida.. No Thats not right  The people in New jersey like there life there better than the people in Florida like there life there..Confusing, Who put this together? are we sure they asked the same questions??   

Three things bad about Florida.

1. Lots of high taxes
2. Lots of hurricanes
3. Lots of retiree's from New Jersey.

BBD

[RD]

21. Texas: 66.1
22. Kansas: 66.1

Shouldnt both of them be "21"?

[The70RT]

It only varies by 10% so not much difference.

[Sublime/Sixpack]

All things considered, I'm pretty happy here in Utah.

[bull]

All things considered, I'm pretty happy here in Utah.

Statistically speaking you should be.

It only varies by 10% so not much difference.

I noticed that. So basically they're saying the people in Hawaii and Utah are only 10% happier than those in W. Virginia and everyone else falls somewhere in-between. Big deal. From what I've heard about Hawaii, 68.2% of the population is on drugs so that could account for some of it.

[The70RT]

I wonder if they got the results from pharmaceuticals selling anti depressants?

[Old Moparz]

I'm very happy I live in NY & not MA, we have a better baseball team that won the World Series. 

[Rolling_Thunder]

California = #9??    BULLSHIT! 

[jb666]

OH PLEASE. I'm #8?? I didn't get that memo cause I'm one miserable bastard.

I'm very happy I live in NY & not MA, we have a better baseball team that won the World Series. 

One word for ya..... LUCK. Jeeter should be selling Avon 

[bakerhillpins]

As for 50 state happiness - I'd be interested to see those figures compared with the climates of those various states.  IMHO what we call "seasonal affective disorder" is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how weather affects people's minds. 

1. Utah: 69.2
3. Wyoming: 68
4. Colorado: 67.3
5. Minnesota: 67.3
8. Massachusetts: 67
11. Idaho: 66.8
12. Montana: 66.7
13. New Hampshire: 66.7
14. Vermont: 66.6

SED? 9 of the top 14 get diminished sunlight and frigid temps for half the year. Are you thinking the questions got asked during the summer when the northern states are high on sunshine?

[PocketThunder]

As for 50 state happiness - I'd be interested to see those figures compared with the climates of those various states.  IMHO what we call "seasonal affective disorder" is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of how weather affects people's minds. 

1. Utah: 69.2
3. Wyoming: 68
4. Colorado: 67.3
5. Minnesota: 67.3
8. Massachusetts: 67
11. Idaho: 66.8
12. Montana: 66.7
13. New Hampshire: 66.7
14. Vermont: 66.6

SED? 9 of the top 14 get diminished sunlight and frigid temps for half the year. Are you thinking the questions got asked during the summer when the northern states are high on sunshine?

It had to be, i'm happy to be at #5 but i'd MUCH rather be in Colorado!!      If only my spouse were separable from her mom, we'd be living out west.  But they cant go 3 weeks without seeing each other and the plane tickets would kill me.   

[Mike DC]

I meant SAD in terms of the timing of the polls and also in terms of the climates in general. 

"Average" temps don't mean a nice place if it's mostly either hot or freezing, for example.  Or if it's nice temps but always raining on those days, etc.

And you'd need to control for other factors.  Like a state being economically in the toilet compared to another one with similar climate, etc. 



I guess you'd need to study it in a much more complicated way than a simple visual of the states.   But I still think there could be some truth in the principle if you compared apples to apples.

[Dodgecharger74]

no  a state of confussion

[hemigeno]

[hick accent]

I've lived in the state of Misery all my life!

[/hick accent]





<rimshot>



Guess the poll sorta shows that's true...

[bordin34]

Did somebody mention NY?

[bakerhillpins]

And you'd need to control for other factors.  Like a state being economically in the toilet compared to another one with similar climate, etc. 

I guess you'd need to study it in a much more complicated way than a simple visual of the states.   But I still think there could be some truth in the principle if you compared apples to apples.

I don't think that there is any way they could control for all the factors that might really be influencing the results. I'm betting we could come of with literally hundreds of factors and then what's the point. They probably just asked a bunch of general well being questions and ran with it to get a general sense of the population.

I didn't realize that I was so happy here in New Hampshire. Or then again I'm only 66% happy. If it were school I would be failing happy. 

[Tilar]

This is crap.. Half the country would rather live in New jersey than Florida!  .. Oh I get it they New jersey people Think its better in New jersey than Florida.. No Thats not right  The people in New jersey like there life there better than the people in Florida like there life there..Confusing, Who put this together? are we sure they asked the same questions??   

Duh, we can get away from all the old people and NJ is better than Florida

I've been to both and I cant imagine ever wanting to vacation in noojoizy.     Actually I think Texas should be #1.