The New Happiest State Rankings Will Leave You Scratching Your Head

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When we think of the happiest places to live in the good ol’ United States, our minds naturally conjure images of relaxing Hawaiian beaches and breathtaking hiking trails in Colorado. But the latest results from the Gallup and Sharecare’s annual Well-Being Index lead us to places we didn’t expect to go.

Two states — South Dakota and Vermont — tie for first place when it comes to life satisfaction in 2017, forcing Hawaii to finally relinquish its throne and accept third place. The duo scored a composite 64.1 out of 100. Minnesota snagged fourth place, and North Dakota rounded out the top five.

Every year, the Gallup team calls thousands upon thousands of American citizens across the country to hear how they feel about their life purpose, as well as their social, financial, community and physical well-being. Pooling that massive amount of data together, they create these happiness rankings by state. In 2017, they interviewed more than 160,000 people.

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It’s definitely worth noting that 2017 was the first year in a decade the index found that no state improved when it came to its overall happiness rankings. In fact, an upsetting 21 states dropped in life satisfaction, which is the largest year-over-year decline Gallup has seen in the history of this project. States that usually score the highest, states that usually score the lowest, and states in the West and South experienced the most dramatic downturns in happiness.

With that said, it’s refreshing to see locales like South Dakota and Vermont take the spotlight. While they have typically received high well-being scores, most people paid them little attention. But this new data highlights just how much their good physical health, healthy diets, physical security, community pride and stable finances make them the states to reckon with.

Those Hawaiian beaches are really nice, but we’re ready to stop overlooking the dark horses of the bunch. They clearly have something to offer that’s worth exploring.