Hawaii tops U.S. in wellbeing for record 7th time
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Hawaii and Colorado have ranked among the top 10 states in wellbeing for the 11th consecutive year, the only two states to do so. West Virginia residents reported the lowest wellbeing for the 10th straight year.
Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Utah - all states that have frequented the top 10 list in past years - rounded out the top five in 2018. Arkansas, which was ranked 48th in 2017 and 2009, was ranked 49th in 2018 - its lowest level ever - and was followed by Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee.
These state-level data are based on more than 115,000 surveys with U.S. adults across all 50 states, conducted in all 12 months of 2018. The Well-Being Index is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest possible wellbeing and 100 represents the highest possible wellbeing.
As in prior years, wellbeing in the U.S. exhibits regional patterns. The Northern Plains and Mountain West are higher wellbeing areas, along with some Western states and pockets of the Northeast and Atlantic. The lowest wellbeing states are concentrated in the South and extend northward through the industrial Midwest. ■