Well-Being Rankings Reveal State Strengths and Weaknesses

WASHINGTON D.C. -- Utah, Hawaii, and Wyoming top the nation in well-being in an analysis of more than 350,000 interviews conducted in 2008. Southern states West Virginia, Kentucky, and Mississippi have the lowest well-being ratings.

These new, state-level data are the results from The AHIP State and Congressional District Resource for Well-Being. The Well-Being Index score for the nation and for each state is an average of six sub-indexes, which individually examine life evaluation, healthy behaviors, work environment, physical health, emotional health, and access to basic necessities. The questions in each sub-index are asked nightly of 1,000 national adults, aged 18 and older.

The Well-Being Index national average for 2008 is 65.5, with each point (1.0) representing approximately 2.2 million people nationally. In terms of the total population in the United States, this means that approximately 144 million people aged 18 and older have favorable well-being. Across all the states, well-being varies by a range of eight points, thus even in the lowest-ranked states, there are a majority of citizens who have favorable well-being.

Mapping well-being scores across the country, a clear pattern emerges with higher well-being states located primarily in the West and lower well-being states clustered in the Midwest and the South. Standing out among its high-ranking western counterparts is Nevada, with a slightly below average well-being score and a rank of 38th. Also defying the overarching geographic pattern of well-being are Maryland and Massachusetts, the only two states in the Northeast to rank in the top 10.

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