Health & Medicine
Gallup Poll Measures Life Health and Finds New Happiest State in the Country
Thomas Carannante
First Posted: Feb 20, 2014 11:19 AM EST
Each year Gallup conducts a well-being poll that helps researchers gauge which state is the happiest in the U.S. Hawaii has ranked as the happiest place to live for the past five years, but the 2014 poll reveals a new state claiming the top spot.
The Gallup poll, recently started in 2008, surveys over 175,000 Americans. In the poll itself, participants answer questions about their well-being. They include "life evaluation: how people feel they're doing currently, and how they expect to do in five years; emotional health: how many positive and negative emotions they've experienced in the past day; work environment: how happy they are at work and their relationship with their bosses; physical health: obesity and illness frequency; healthy behaviors: how well people eat and how often they exercise and; basic access to food, shelter, clean water, and medical care." More information can be found in this LiveScience article.
This year, the poll showed a drastic drop in Hawaii's workplace satisfaction. The state that overtook the reigning Hawaii, believe it or not, was North Dakota. The poll results showed they are first in work environment and physical health and the state's low unemployment rate is thought to have improved their population's financial security and access to health insurance. Since 2008 the Gallup poll has showed that well-being is the strongest and highest in the Plains states as well as the Mountain West, so North Dakota's position is no surprise.
The poll measures well-being through the actions and habits of people in each state. High well-being states report being healthier, smoking less, and learning new things every day, unlike the "usual suspect" states, such as Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Ohio, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, which have not shown well-being improvements since the poll began in 2008.
Despite Hawaii's drop in workplace satisfaction and slight rise in stress and anger, it still ranks high in the U.S. for happiest places to live. The state is above average in almost all of the categories in terms of happiness, but North Dakota slightly inched out the victory with a well-being score of 70.4 out of 100.
To read more about the Gallup poll, visit this LiveScience article as well as the Gallup website.
See Now:
NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone
©2024 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.
More on SCIENCEwr
First Posted: Feb 20, 2014 11:19 AM EST
Each year Gallup conducts a well-being poll that helps researchers gauge which state is the happiest in the U.S. Hawaii has ranked as the happiest place to live for the past five years, but the 2014 poll reveals a new state claiming the top spot.
The Gallup poll, recently started in 2008, surveys over 175,000 Americans. In the poll itself, participants answer questions about their well-being. They include "life evaluation: how people feel they're doing currently, and how they expect to do in five years; emotional health: how many positive and negative emotions they've experienced in the past day; work environment: how happy they are at work and their relationship with their bosses; physical health: obesity and illness frequency; healthy behaviors: how well people eat and how often they exercise and; basic access to food, shelter, clean water, and medical care." More information can be found in this LiveScience article.
This year, the poll showed a drastic drop in Hawaii's workplace satisfaction. The state that overtook the reigning Hawaii, believe it or not, was North Dakota. The poll results showed they are first in work environment and physical health and the state's low unemployment rate is thought to have improved their population's financial security and access to health insurance. Since 2008 the Gallup poll has showed that well-being is the strongest and highest in the Plains states as well as the Mountain West, so North Dakota's position is no surprise.
The poll measures well-being through the actions and habits of people in each state. High well-being states report being healthier, smoking less, and learning new things every day, unlike the "usual suspect" states, such as Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Ohio, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, which have not shown well-being improvements since the poll began in 2008.
Despite Hawaii's drop in workplace satisfaction and slight rise in stress and anger, it still ranks high in the U.S. for happiest places to live. The state is above average in almost all of the categories in terms of happiness, but North Dakota slightly inched out the victory with a well-being score of 70.4 out of 100.
To read more about the Gallup poll, visit this LiveScience article as well as the Gallup website.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone