Happiness According to State
45. Illinois
46. California
51. New York
[I just know that there will be comments to the effect of how this data should be discounted because we don't have the names of all those who were interviewed, and because "I know some people who live in New York and they're happy."]
The state-by-state list, from happiest to least cheery as reported by the Associated Press in The Charleston Gazette:
1. Louisiana
2. Hawaii
3. Florida
4. Tennessee
5. Arizona
6. South Carolina
7. Mississippi
8. Montana
9. Alabama
10. Maine
11. Wyoming
12. Alaska
13. North Carolina
14. South Dakota
15. Texas16. Idaho
17. Vermont
18. Arkansas
19. Georgia
20. Utah
21. Oklahoma
22. Delaware
23. Colorado
24. New Mexico
25. North Dakota
26. Minnesota
27. Virginia
28. New Hampshire
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. Ohio
44. Massachusetts
45. Illinois
46. California
47. New Jersey
48. Indiana
49. Michigan
50. Connecticut
51. New York
Comments
KIDDING, Scott.
In all seriousness and on a personal not, I bet if they'd asked only queer people this would look differently. That was my first thought. "Clearly these people are not like me."
Anyway, all the states are the worst. God, I wish I were French.
Of course, I am posting this not to rub the Nylachi noses in it, but rather to indicate that there are, indeed, reasons people might NOT want to live there. And those people deserve the arts just as much as Nylachi.
A friend of my mother's once asked me if I felt frightened walking through Brooklyn at night. My answer? Nope. I feel unsafe walking though small town Ohio. But I do recognize that NYC both protects me and traps me.
Anyway, all of this is off topic. It was just my very first thought, so I shared it.
Oh, and I totally know any number of reasons people wouldn't want to live here. Hell, I don't want to live here. I just don't have any other options.
In all seriousness, I do notice that in the bottom section of the list are the wealthiest portions of the country, and the states that, in general, receive less federal aid for social programs, while, near the top of the list, the beneficiaries of federal aid are clumped. That, I'm sure, has something to do with the overall happiness, as defined by a set of qualities that are largely dependent on governmental spending and federal regulation (which is often altered to suit the agendas of small-population states, who, in the World's Most Dysfunctional Body (i.e. The U.S. Senate) have equal representation).
I completely agree that there is a bias towards urban centers and populous states in a way, but there's also a lot of discrimination against those states and a fair amount of assumptions about life there that are hard to shake.
I agree wholeheartedly with joshcon; there are definitely types of people who feel more comfortable in an urban center than in a rural area and in order to achieve the parity that I think we all want, some people will have to be brave and deal with regions that aren't particularly welcoming at first, sometimes at actual physical peril.
http://aplaywrightspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/12/class-warfare-and-corruption-in.html
Sure, Uke, you don't think that sort of cronyism happens only in PA and not in NYC...
Partly because it's easy to find stats that suggest that the following statement - "The places where people are most likely to report happiness also tend to rate high on studies comparing things like climate, crime rates, air quality and schools." - is quite flawed.
For instance, several studies suggest that the 10 "most dangerous" states (as measured by per capita crime rate for 6 serious crimes which are all equally weighted) do not include NY or CA, and that Louisiana is actually considered the 2nd most dangerous state in the Union. (Nevada is #1, South Carolina is #3, followed by NM, FL, TN, AL, AZ, MD and MI.)
What does stand out to me about the top 10 "happiest" states as that all of them, except Montana and Maine and Hawaii are south of the Mason Dixon line, which means they're more temperate. But even that doesn't help me make sense of the list since CA is certainly quite nice in terms of weather.... Still, you can't help but notice the pattern in that top 10.