Louisiana residents aged 55 and older have the nation’s weakest financial health compared to peers in their age group across the U.S., and their overall well-being is ranked No. 41 in a new report by Gallup-Healthways.
The report compares the overall well-being of older Americans across five categories: purpose, social, financial, community and physical. Although the report says “older Americans score especially high in financial well-being,” that’s not the case in Louisiana, where the state is ranked dead last for financial well-being among those 55 and older.
Among the category rankings, Louisiana fared the best for purpose, at No. 13 in the U.S. Other category rankings for the state are: social, No. 25; community, No. 24; and physical, No. 43.
The top five states for well-being among older Americans are Hawaii, Montana, South Dakota, Alaska and Iowa, the report says. At the other end of the spectrum, West Virginia is said to be the worst state, followed by Kentucky, Oklahoma, Ohio and Indiana.
The report is based on self-reported data from 114,388 interviews with individuals age 55 and older to capture how they feel about their day-to-day lives. Gallup-Healthways says the report reveals that, nationally, adults 55 and older have higher well-being than the rest of the population across all five categories it included in the overall rankings, and that well-being gets better with age. People 75 and older have even higher well-being than those ages 65 to 74, and they outscore the younger population by a sizable margin.
“The trajectory of well-being for older adults is interesting because we do see a decline in well-being when people reach their late forties and early fifties, but then a significant increase across all five elements after that,” says Dan Witters, research director of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, in a prepared statement. “From previous research, we know that higher well-being correlates with lower health care costs and increased productivity. Maintaining high well-being for older Americans will be especially important to employers as our country’s workforce ages and more individuals delay retirement.”
As Daily Report reported earlier this year, a ranking by United Health Foundation on the physical health of seniors placed Louisiana last in the nation.
See the complete Gallup-Healthways report.
—Steve Sanoski
