February 21, 2015
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index/well-beingindex.com
The 50 states were ranked in a 2014 "Well-Being" study. In this map, the darker shaded states mark a higher ranking, while the lighter shaded states mark a lower ranking.
The annual Gallup-Heathways Well-Being Index's State Rankings places New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware at 34th, 35th and 38th, respectively.
The study was conducted by using over 175,000 phone interviews over the course of 2014, spanning from January 2 to December 30. It measures how people feel about five areas of daily life:
Purpose: 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
States' scores in these categories are used to determine a composite rank. The three states making up the Delaware Valley scored on the latter half of the rankings.
Pennsylvania's highest individual rank is 'Financial' (17th), while its lowest is 'Purpose' (42). New Jersey's highest rank is 'Social' (23), while its lowest is 'Community' (48). Delaware is similar, as its highest rank is 'Social' (11) while its lowest is 'Community' (47).
Taking the top spot of the rankings for the first time in the study's history was Alaska, while Kentucky and West Virginia took 49th and last, respectively, for the second year in a row.
Some states saw significant changes in their rankings from 2013:
Here are the full composite rankings from the study:
