Happiest States in the U.S. Ranked

By Sophia Waterfield

Hawaii is the happiest state in the U.S. based on its population's overall well-being, satisfaction with life and external environmental factors.

According to a report done by WalletHub, people in the island state seemed to be able to stay positive despite the events going on around such as the coronavirus pandemic. To determine how happy a state was, the company examined the 50 states across 32 key metrics. These included: the depression rate, positive COVID-19 testing rate, income growth and the unemployment rate.

Hawaii rates as the overall happiest state in the country, with Utah and Minnesota following second and third respectively.

"In order to determine the happiest states in America, WalletHub compared the 50 states across three key dimensions: emotional and physical well-being, work environment and community and environment," the company says on its website.

"We evaluated those dimensions using 32 relevant metrics," it continues. "Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing maximum happiness." The company then determined each state's weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order its sample.

The unhappiest states in the country include West Virginia, ranked last, Arkansas and Oklahoma. All three states ranked low on the three categories, with specific findings including the highest share of depression (West Virginia) and least safe (Arkansas).

However, even the happiest states have their low points—Hawaii has the lowest adequate sleep rate out of all 50 states. Perhaps not so surprising, Nevada was found to have the highest divorce rating, followed by Florida.

New Jersey, New York, California and Nevada had a lowest share of adult depression—New York and New Jersey also have some of the lowest suicide rates.

WalletHub Happiest States in the U.S. — A graphic showing the best and worst ranked states for depression, sleep rate, safety, divorce and more. WalletHub

The full ranking list is included below:

Overall Rank (1 = Happiest)	State	Total Score	"Emotional & Physical Well-Being" Rank	"Work Environment" Rank	"Community & Environment" Rank
1	Hawaii	69.58	2	16	3
2	Utah	69.42	14	1	1
3	Minnesota	65.87	4	4	10
4	New Jersey	64.10	1	30	22
5	Maryland	61.78	3	33	9
6	California	61.14	7	18	13
7	North Dakota	60.02	18	3	7
8	Iowa	59.65	15	6	11
9	Idaho	59.58	34	2	2
10	Connecticut	59.23	5	38	17
11	Nebraska	59.06	9	8	36
12	South Dakota	58.53	22	10	4
13	Massachusetts	57.30	8	12	43
14	Virginia	56.27	11	21	33
15	Washington	55.60	27	7	18
16	Vermont	55.59	20	24	6
17	New York	54.86	6	44	45
18	Wisconsin	54.32	23	17	19
19	Nevada	53.67	29	25	5
20	Arizona	53.47	19	20	32
21	New Hampshire	53.36	24	11	38
22	Georgia	52.73	21	36	24
23	Colorado	52.57	17	9	47
24	Delaware	52.25	16	43	35
25	Texas	51.04	10	31	50
26	Rhode Island	50.96	25	28	34
27	Florida	50.58	12	39	49
28	Pennsylvania	50.16	26	40	30
29	Illinois	50.14	13	45	46
30	Maine	50.12	35	14	20
31	Wyoming	49.26	30	23	39
32	North Carolina	49.19	28	27	42
33	Kansas	49.16	31	19	40
34	South Carolina	48.78	36	26	21
35	Ohio	48.37	32	41	25
36	Indiana	47.96	33	29	31
37	Michigan	47.27	38	35	23
38	Montana	47.25	40	5	41
39	New Mexico	47.03	39	46	8
40	Missouri	45.79	41	22	12
41	Oregon	43.67	43	13	29
42	Alaska	40.85	37	47	48
43	Alabama	40.28	46	34	16
44	Mississippi	39.52	44	48	14
45	Tennessee	39.21	45	15	44
46	Kentucky	38.29	47	32	26
47	Louisiana	38.15	42	50	28
48	Oklahoma	37.66	48	37	27
49	Arkansas	36.83	49	42	15
50	West Virginia	30.58	50	49	37

According to WalletHub, the data used to create this ranking was collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United Health Foundation, Bureau of Labor Statisics and more. The COVID Tracking Project also contributed data.