If you’re like me and you had no idea that Utah was the Beehive State, now we’re both better educated on state nicknames. If you want to be happy, a new survey says take a trip to the Beehive State.
Why can traveling there make you happy? Utah has topped the list of the Happiest States in the United States for 2023, according to a survey from the folks at WalletHub.
The site’s financial experts crunched the numbers on “Emotional and Physical Well-Being,” “Work Environment,” and “Community and Environment.” They looked at each state and analyzed several factors including depression rates, unemployment statistics, the rate of divorce, and which states get the most sleep. After all the math was completed, Utah ranked as number one for this year. One factor that helped them reach the top spot is that they have the fewest work hours.
But, what about New Jersey? Overall, New Jersey ranked an impressive 5th out of all 50 states. Even better, we came in third in the “Emotional and Physical Well-Being” category. We also scored 14th in “Work Environment” and 29th in “Community and Environment.” The latter is what kept us from scoring closer to the top of the list. One more positive finding is that New Jersey has the lowest suicide rate followed by New York.
New York landed 16th on the list overall. They scored admirably in “Emotional and Physical Well-Being” with a seven but got 39s in the other two categories.
Pennsylvania was in the top half of the list but barely. PA notched a 25 on the list of 50. Their best score was a 17 for “Emotional and Physical Well-Being.”
Last year’s #1, Hawaii, slipped to second place, with Maryland and Minnesota coming in third and fourth, respectively.
At the bottom of the list are Tennessee, Louisiana, and West Virginia respectively. West Virginia had the highest rate of adult depression.