States of Well-Being

Recently, the Gallup organization released poll results quantifying the well-being of every state in the US (and every congressional district within each state).  The sample was a large one—over 330,000 adults, all interviewed by phone.  According to Gallup, the greatest well-being can be found in Utah, with Hawaii and Wyoming close behind.   And who was lowest?  The mountaineers of West Virginia.  The map at the Gallup site shows that all of the 10 lowest ranking states are contiguous with each other, with tenth-from-the-bottom Michigan being the northernmost member of this band of misery, third-from-the-bottom Mississippi being the southernmost member, and West Virginia and eighth-from-the-bottom Oklahoma being easternmost and westernmost, respectively.  Tables available at the AHIP-Hi-Wire site reveal that my state of residence, North Carolina, is 34^th  among the 50 states in terms of well-being, and my congressional district ranks 299^th out of 435 districts nationwide.  That’s pretty low, but it could have been worse: a few years ago I moved from North Carolina’s 7^th congressional district (ranking 418), and I grew up in Michigan’s 5^th district (coming in at 420).  According to the table, the folks here in NC-2 should be giddy by comparison (actually, I hadn’t noticed a difference). 

The well-being index is actually a composite of six different sub-indexes: Life Satisfaction, Workplace Environment, Healthy Behavior, Basic Access (including clean water; medical care; safe places to exercise; and money for food shelter, and healthcare), Physical Health (including sick days, pain, energy, and BMI), and Emotional Health.  Only two of these sub-indexes are based on questions that can be thought of as directly measuring happiness.  In particular, the Life Satisfaction index had each respondent rate on a 10-point scale her current life situation and what she anticipated her life situation would be in five years.  The other indicator of happiness, Emotional Health, asked whether the respondent had been diagnosed with depression, followed by questions about whether he had experienced smiling or laughter, enjoyment, happiness, worry, sadness, anger, stress, and a few other similar events the day before the interview.  For the most part, then, the Emotional Health Index is a self-report of whether daily life is experienced positively or negatively.

Happiness Haven

When the statewide scores on the two sub-indexes that directly measure happiness are compared, Hawaii is first on both of them.  Hawaiians win the happiness derby going away!  Interestingly, Hawaii ranks dead last among the fifty states on the Workplace Environment Index.  That index has to do with satisfaction with one’s job, trusting one’s employer, and being able to use one’s strengths at work.  For many of us, work is so central to our lives that it is hard to imagine being happy without some degree of work satisfaction.  Apparently the Hawaiians don’t see work that way, though.

At the other end of the statewide ratings, the West Virginians are not only lowest on the overall well-being index, but score lowest on the two sub-indexes that relate directly to happiness. Of the six sub-indexes, they are above average on only one—the Workplace Environment Index.  Once again, work and overall life satisfaction don’t seem all that closely related.   Studs Terkel, are you listening?