Which state has the happiest Americans?
According to a Gallup poll, North and South Dakota are fracking’ happy, topping all 50 states in the highest well-being. West Virginia, Kentucky and Mississippi have the lowest scores.
The scores were set on a scale of zero to 100, with North Dakota topping the charts at 70.4 and West Virginia bringing up the rear at 61.4. The well-being was measured on six sub-indexes: life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors and basic access.
North Dakota scored the highest on work environment and physical health. Vermont had the healthiest behaviors and Alaska had the highest emotional health — which seems a little suspect, since Alaska has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, but to-may-to, to-mah-to.
West Virginia scored the lowest in all the sub-indexes except for work environment. The worst place to work in the nation is anywhere in Mississippi, apparently.
Overall, the states with the highest overall well-being tend to be in the west and midwest, plus Vermont. The states with the poorest well-being tend to be in the south.
See the full results on Gallup’s site.