Gallup just released its 11th annual rankings of every state by their "wellbeing" scores and things aren't looking too good for Indiana. The state, along with Kentucky and Illinois, ranks in the bottom ten states in the U.S.

"Wellbeing," in this case, basically means how happy and healthy people are. The wellbeing scores are based on how people rank five different aspects of their life:

  • Career: liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals
  • Social: having supportive relationships and love in your life
  • Financial: managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security
  • Community: liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community
  • Physical: having good health and enough energy to get things done daily

Indiana ranks at number 41, Illinois at 42, and Kentucky at 48. That's somewhat unsettling. It means that overall, we are unhappy in life. According to Gallup, this is part of regional patterns that have existed since they began conducting these surveys.

As in prior years, wellbeing in the U.S. exhibits regional patterns. The Northern Plains and Mountain West are higher wellbeing areas, along with some Western states and pockets of the Northeast and Atlantic. The lowest wellbeing states are concentrated in the South and extend northward through the industrial Midwest.

 

For the seventh time in eleven years, Hawaii ranked in at number one. It's an island paradise, so that's not surprising at all to me. We don't have most of the luxuries here in the Tri-State that those in Hawaii have. That being said, there are a few questions we should consider.

  • What makes our wellbeing in the area so bad?
  • Are we really that unhappy?
  • What can we do to change that?

Surely, something can be done to boost us out of the bottom ten. If you would like to read more about Gallup's findings in more detail, you can click on the link below.

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