People in sunny, outdoorsy states — Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida — say they’re the happiest Americans, and researchers think they know why. A new study comparing self-described pleasant feelings with objective measures of good living found these folks generally have reason to feel fine. Ranking No. 1 in happiness was Louisiana, home of Dixieland music and Cajun/Creole cooking. Researchers urged a bit of caution in that ranking, however, noting that part of the happiness survey occurred before Hurricane Katrina struck the state in 2005, and part of it took place later. Nevertheless, Andrew J. Oswald, an economist of the University of Warwick in England, who co-authored the study says, “We have no explicit reason to think there is a problem” with the ranking.
The happiness ratings were based on a survey of 1.3 million people across the country by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It used data collected over four years that included a question asking people how satisfied they are with their lives. Oswald and Stephen Wu of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y., compared the happiness ranking with studies that rated states on a variety of criteria ranging from availability of public land to commuting time to local taxes. Probably not surprisingly, their report in Friday’s edition of the journal Science found the happiest people tend to live in the states that do well in quality-of-life studies.
