Happiest States of 2009: The List

 

Topping the well-being list among all 50 states, Hawaii pulled ahead of the 2008 leader Utah. But Utah and its neighbors still have plenty to smile about. Nine of the top 10 well-being states reside in the Midwest and the West. The south didn't fare so well, taking seven of the 11 lowest well-being spots on the list.

 

The results come from interviews with more than 350,000 American adults who took part in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index in 2009...

 

...Hawaii also topped the charts for life evaluation, emotional health and physical health, while West Virginia scored the worst on those indexes. Utah was number-one for work environment, scoring 10 points more than the worst state, Delaware.

 

1. Hawaii: 70.2 (68.2)

2. Utah: 68.3 (69.2)

3. Montana: 68.3 (66.7)

4. Minnesota: 67.8 (67.3)

5. Iowa: 67.6 (65.6)

.........

46. Nevada: 63.8 (64.5)

47. Ohio: 63.6 (62.8 )

48. Arkansas: 62.8 (62.9)

49. Kentucky: 62.3 (61.4)

50. West Virginia: 60.5 (61.2)

 

:x

 

http://www.livescience.com/culture/happy-states-2009-100216.html

But Hawaii has the highest tax rate per capita AND government controlled health care!!  How the heck are they so happy.  They are getting treaded on left and right!

I dunno. I am pretty darn happy every time I am in Hawaii!

Even Hawaii's spiders are happy: http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/happyface_01

 

Kentucky is 49, and lookee there, Misssissppi isn't 50. 

Where are they extracting this data from?  Maybe its just the people i surround myself with, but i dont know hardly anyone who is miserable here.  Anyone who has wanted to leave has left...but its not too many.

I don't know how anyone could be happy living in a State that at any given moment could be obliterated off the face of the earth by natural forces.

 

Have you ever been to Hawaii?

And Delaware ranks worst in work environment even though (or because of the fact) that lots of giant corporations are headquartered there and it has very low taxes.

ugh, unfortunately gallup polling is generally respectable.

 

they must be polling vacationers because you always hear that people who move to hawaii dont stay very long -- for a variety of reasons.

 

 

I've heard that Hawaii's natives are not very welcoming of transplants.  Tourists are their lifeblood, for sure, but transplants are not desired.  Any truth to that?

I've heard that Hawaii's natives are not very welcoming of transplants.  Tourists are their lifeblood, for sure, but transplants are not desired.  Any truth to that?

I understand this to be true, but it might vary by community. For instance Hilo is quite different than Honolulu.  In their defense, a lot of transplants act the fool, thinking their way of doing things if the best and only way. Native Hawaiians have a very interesting and strong culture and have really only have had mass exposure to Western culture for a few generations. I also think there is job competition which only makes things worse.  Hawaii's economy has taken a heavy beating as well. A lot of people of Pacific Island heritage are struggling with obesity and diabetes-as are poor people all over the U.S.-yet I do recall the overall health status of residents (of all ethnic groups) is high ranking.  Anecdotally, I have never seen so many people exercising outdoors.

 

 

as far as people not staying long, I think a few factors come into play. People go to places like Hawaii, Florida and California, often on a whim and ill prepared. They think they are getting away from problems, only to bring them with them. Hawaii also has a very high cost of living and you are subject to Island fever if you never get to travel. I also think people go there thinking they will start their own business. We all know how that goes. Wages are not high either so standard of living of transplants is likely to fall. 

I don't know how anyone could be happy living in a State that at any given moment could be obliterated off the face of the earth by natural forces.

 

Have you ever been to Hawaii?

 

Yeah but there's usually a big difference between vacationing and living somewhere, right? You could see yourself moving to Hawaii permanently?  :? Me personally, I'm too much of a free-spirit to be stranded on an island. 

 

Besides, I don't trust Kim Jong-Il lol

You miss my point - I wasn't saying I have a goal to move there, I was saying that I've been there and can at least *get* why people would want to move there. Just like I've been to Phoenix and while I have no desire to live there, I can say that I've seen enough to know why some people find it appealing. Don't get me wrong - Honolulu - big city next to gorgeous beaches just a short drive from jaw dropping scenery (and that's just Oahu) is as good as it gets in my book, until you factor in career potential, cost of living, etc.

I can say that from my perspective of just coming back from Florida in the middle of winter, even with all Florida's problems, Ohio feels like total crap. What do I mean by that? First of all, the weather. Its a massive shock on the body to go from ubiquitous and ever present sun and warmth to a gray, desaturated world.

 

But weather is easy compared to the ever-present emptiness of Ohio cities. You get used to this chaotic, tacky, infuriating population in Florida that chatters loudly at you in random languages and clogs the roads and makes weekend waits at restaurants 4 hours long. Its infuriating, but its also very much alive. Growing and pushing at the boundaries of the built environment in every way. Back in Cincinnati, it's like someone threw a party and nobody showed up. Block after block of grand old buildings, and not a soul on the street.

 

A lot of urban Florida looks like absolute shit. But people use it. There is very little there that is abandoned. You come to a place like Cincinnati or Cleveland and you see these great dark swaths of city that are just rotting in place, and it's not just a shame, it feels viscerally wrong. Like you're looking at a corpse. You get the sense that you should run, that its bad energy, that you're witnessing something unnatural and disturbing. Certainly, you get used to it. Especially if you grow up here. And if you have imagination and courage, you can see through it to something better. But, coming back to Cincinnati from Florida has given me a great deal of understanding on why people flee the rust belt, and why people in other parts of America don't like this place.

Here's an alternative list that came out last year.

 

http://www.webmd.com/balance/news/20091217/southern-states-are-the-happiest

 

 

I can say that from my perspective of just coming back from Florida in the middle of winter, even with all Florida's problems, Ohio feels like total crap. What do I mean by that? First of all, the weather. Its a massive shock on the body to go from ubiquitous and ever present sun and warmth to a gray, desaturated world.

 

But weather is easy compared to the ever-present emptiness of Ohio cities. You get used to this chaotic, tacky, infuriating population in Florida that chatters loudly at you in random languages and clogs the roads and makes weekend waits at restaurants 4 hours long. Its infuriating, but its also very much alive. Growing and pushing at the boundaries of the built environment in every way. Back in Cincinnati, it's like someone threw a party and nobody showed up. Block after block of grand old buildings, and not a soul on the street.

 

A lot of urban Florida looks like absolute sh!t. But people use it. There is very little there that is abandoned. You come to a place like Cincinnati or Cleveland and you see these great dark swaths of city that are just rotting in place, and it's not just a shame, it feels viscerally wrong. Like you're looking at a corpse. You get the sense that you should run, that its bad energy, that you're witnessing something unnatural and disturbing. Certainly, you get used to it. Especially if you grow up here. And if you have imagination and courage, you can see through it to something better. But, coming back to Cincinnati from Florida has given me a great deal of understanding on why people flee the rust belt, and why people in other parts of America don't like this place.

 

Wow.  You've really captured it for me.  This is exactly how I feel about living here in the winter. 

^ I agree with you a 100% about the weather. Winter only gets to me from about the middle of January to St. Patrick's  Day.

In the '70s, lots of people around Columbus had snowmobiles. Now you almost never see them. I saw some snowmobile tracks in Pickaway County last week and had to look 3 times to check if they were real.

You don't even have to go to Hawaii to know why people would be happy there.  Just google it.

No but I've seen pictures/movies....I was just trying to find something negative about it.

 

Horrifically expensive cost of living - especially when compared with Ohio. Incredibly isolated compared with Ohio - if you like LONNNG flights, it's a great fit. Substantially less opportunities jobwise in most fields... I could go on :-)

 

...including my own :(.

 

Let's get back to talking about...Hawaii :( *CRIES*

Damnit, what'd I miss? ;)

I think just the really nerdy discussion about MSAs/CSAs and the subtle hints about which metro areas in Ohio are the biggest and therefore, the greatest.