The Happiest State in the US

Happiness comes in many forms, but where is it easiest to find? We analyzed the data to discover America’s happiest state.

North Dakota

Is the happiest state in America

The Peace Garden state topped the ranking after the study found it performed well in 17 factors that contribute towards happiness, such as health, income, work-life balance and environment.

Top three states

North Dakota

North Dakota ranked the happiest out of all 50 states after performing well in a number of different factors, including the highest level of income growth over the past year, the second-best score for open spaces and beauty, and the highest number of national parks per square ft.

Vermont

In second position is Vermont, performing particularly well in factors related to health. Health factors have the highest weight in the analysis as the OECD’s Better Life Index has found that Americans rate it as the most important contributor to their happiness.

Nebraska

Nebraska places as the third happiest state, and scores the highest in the index for the best work-life balance, which is measured on factors such as commute time, number of health clubs and average working hours.

Discover where each state ranked for happiness

Overall Ranking	State	Health Ranking	Education Ranking	Work-Life Balance	Environment Ranking	Safety Ranking	Housing ranking	Income Ranking
1	North Dakota	1	2	4	8	23	24	1
2	Vermont	3	1	7	4	35	17	40
3	Nebraska	8	27	1	28	30	36	4
4	South Dakota	17	22	5	6	41	6	5
5	California	6	33	39	1	45	46	21
6	Rhode Island	18	7	27	2	33	41	33
7	Iowa	16	15	8	14	29	48	7
8	Montana	45	3	3	24	31	4	14
9	Oregon	32	11	15	3	22	27	34
10	Utah	34	14	2	29	17	1	42
11	Wyoming	28	5	11	13	8	3	41
12	Georgia	23	19	25	10	7	7	3
13	Minnesota	14	19	6	31	40	16	18
14	Alaska	9	30	18	21	1	23	49
15	Idaho	42	34	9	15	21	8	26
16	South Carolina	36	8	23	5	38	14	13
17	New Jersey	2	43	31	46	32	35	37
18	Mississippi	35	12	49	7	2	12	2
19	Connecticut	7	30	19	42	5	18	48
20	Delaware	15	37	24	23	23	19	35
20	Massachusetts	5	38	16	39	44	33	42
22	Alabama	47	24	21	9	3	19	12
23	Wisconsin	19	24	12	34	10	42	30
24	Kansas	25	17	10	35	43	26	11
25	Virginia	20	42	14	27	26	11	45
26	Texas	13	48	44	25	13	5	14
26	Louisiana	39	24	40	11	6	25	8
28	Maine	37	8	29	12	18	43	45
29	Colorado	21	27	28	18	47	2	31
30	New Hampshire	30	19	13	20	37	28	50
31	North Carolina	24	13	20	19	50	19	28
32	Arkansas	44	18	33	17	4	22	17
33	Maryland	10	40	32	40	28	9	47
34	New York	4	45	43	50	15	29	42
35	Arizona	27	34	46	16	16	30	31
36	Florida	26	48	47	22	19	40	9
37	Hawaii	12	4	38	43	38	50	22
38	Indiana	29	15	26	47	9	34	25
39	Oklahoma	48	50	17	30	27	32	23
40	New Mexico	22	8	45	36	11	15	39
41	Washington	33	44	36	26	36	10	26
42	Missouri	43	39	22	41	11	44	20
43	Illinois	11	47	41	49	49	45	10
44	Michigan	40	30	34	37	14	49	16
45	Pennsylvania	31	41	30	48	34	39	35
46	Ohio	41	45	35	45	25	47	19
47	Nevada	38	27	50	32	48	38	6
48	Tennessee	49	34	37	38	46	13	24
49	West Virginia	50	6	48	33	19	36	38
50	Kentucky	46	23	42	44	42	31	29

Happiest State

The key happiness factors.

Health ranks as US citizens’ most important contributor towards happiness, according to the OECD Better Life Index, and the study included four separate factors within the category – depression rate, sleep, suicide numbers and number of hospitals per capita. North Dakota ranks the highest while West Virginia ranks the lowest of all 50 states.

Education is the second most important element for happiness, and Vermont comes out on top with the most higher education places per capita. In second place is North Dakota and coming in third is Montana.

Work-Life Balance is also highly valued by Americans, with the study revealing Nebraska as the best place to achieve it. This category factored in health clubs per capita, working hours, volunteer rate, unemployment rate, commute time and divorce rates, with Utah placing second and Montana third. Conversely, Nevada places 50th on the list for achieving a good balance between career and home life.

Environment is fourth on the list of things that make people happy in America, and California takes the top spot in the category, which assesses the percentage of trees covering state, open spaces and beauty and national parks. Rhode Island comes in second and Oregon third while New York ranks in last place.

Safety is ranked as the fifth most important consideration for happiness in the US. The state that has the highest safety score is Alaska followed by Mississippi, while North Carolina comes in as the least safe.

Housing is the sixth most important contributor to happiness, and sees Hawaii at the bottom of the pile, with the smallest average housing size (sq. ft) out of all the states, while Utah ranks first for housing size.

Income is the seventh and final happiness factor on the list, and North Dakota comes in first again, thanks to its income growth percentage over the last year. New Hampshire has had the lowest income growth out of all US states.

Research Methodology

17 factors were used to rank each state’s level of happiness:

Population with depression
Population with insufficient seep
Number of health clubs
Number of suicides
Average working hours
Income growth
Divorce rate
Volunteer rate
Average commute time
Average house size
Percentage of trees covering the state
Number of national parks
Open spaces and beauty
Safety
Number of higher education places
Number of hospitals.

Data was found on each of the factors for all 50 states in the US. Each of the factors were then ranked using a 10-point scale, with 10 being the best.

The rankings were then weighted by importance to a US resident based on the OECD Better Life Index’s survey of what US citizens value in terms of making them happy.

Order of importance of each factor: