These Are The Happiest And Unhappiest Regions In The US

Business Insider ^ | 07/26/2014 | Andy Kiersz

[SeekAndFind]

Happiness is not equally distributed across the United States.

A recent National Bureau of Economic Research working paper by Harvard economics professor Edward Glaeser, University of British Columbia economics professor Joshua Gottlieb, and Harvard graduate student Oren Ziv tracks how people's self-perceived happiness varies among American cities.

The researchers used data from the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, an extensive survey coordinated by the CDC that tracks health behaviors and risk factors. One of the questions on the survey asks respondents how satisfied they are with their lives, with the four options of "very dissatisfied", "unsatisfied", "satisfied", and "very satisfied". This survey data is frequently viewed as an approximate measure of self-reported well being, or how happy people feel about their lives.

The paper focuses on differences in respondents' self-reported life satisfaction among cities. Using a statistical model controlling for various individual demographic characteristics, like age, gender, race, education, marital status, and parenthood, the authors were able to estimate the impact that location has on respondents' happiness.

The authors found that, after controlling for all the demographic variables, there was still a fairly strong amount of variability between cities.

[SeekAndFind]

[fwdude]

What’s up with Kentucky?!

[rktman]

Happiness around my house. :>}

[RightGeek]

And Indiana?

[SharpRightTurn]

“What’s up with Kentucky?!”

Presence of Mitch McConnell?

[Safetgiver]

So...what’s thie mean? If I’m red, blue or green what the hell does it mean? Oh. -6 or -2 ? What?

[BBell]

I’m not surprise Louisiana appears to be the happiest state. I’ve lived all over and there is no place like Louisiana. We are all fat and happy here.

[SeekAndFind]

RE: I’ve lived all over and there is no place like Louisiana. We are all fat and happy here.

Happy even in the dangerous city of New Orleans?

[SeekAndFind]

RED = UNHAPPIEST ; BLUE = HAPPIEST

[Zathras]

No surprise with Colorado
I loved living there.

[SeekAndFind]

To follow up my above response.... It looks like big cities like New York and the Midwest are much less happy than other regions.

[molson209]

So...what’s this mean? If I’m red, blue or green what the hell does it mean? Oh. -6 or -2 ? What?

see that’s making you unhappy , LOL

[BBell]

Yes. New Orleans is a fun place. It’s just like any big city, be street smart.

[x]

At least it may be a survey of where people actually are happy, and not of places where they are supposed to be happy in the survey-takers opinion. Maybe it has more to do with contentedness that with that elusive thing called true happiness, though.

It looks like people in highly stressed or depressed environments, like Detroit and Long Island, aren't happy. Not really a surprise. Also people who live in cities that are in the orbit of other wealthier places -- people who live in Springfield, MA rather than Connecticut or Vermont, or in Scranton or Buffalo, rather than New York City.

[Caipirabob]

So basically liberals are miserable people. How much were they paid for this study?!? I could have told them that for free, but next time I won’t.

[jsanders2001]

Noticed that patten too and it reflects my general experience talking with people all over the U.S. for 20 + years experience. The crabbiest people by far I’ve spoken to are from New York, Illinois, and California. Which are all red states,. Most have been in the big cities though. The people in the rural areas out there are a little less hostile in nature.

[expat2]

The South is fairly happy, as are the mountain states. The area south and east of the Great Lakes is very unhappy, while the west coast is unhappy.
The happiness seems to correlate well with amount of sunshine, which is quite common. I would suspect that this survey was done in the cooler months, when the west coast and the Great-Lake areas get lots of gloomy clouds and rain.

[oldbrowser]

RED = UNHAPPIEST ; BLUE = HAPPIEST

That tells us who put this all together. good catch.

However, you will notice that the unhappiest states seem to be the liberal states regardless of their little color scheme. The population is leaving the liberal states to move to the conservative states. They don't say that but it is pretty obvious.

[SeekAndFind]

I’m not surprise Louisiana appears to be the happiest state. I’ve lived all over and there is no place like Louisiana. We are all fat and happy here.

As native Louisianian, Phil Robertson would say:

[SeekAndFind]

RE: The happiness seems to correlate well with amount of sunshine, which is quite common. I would suspect that this survey was done in the cooler months, when the west coast and the Great-Lake areas get lots of gloomy clouds and rain.

Speaking of seasons, climates and weather, this reminds me... the map does not include Alaska and Hawaii and the territories...