New York ranks at bottom in US happiness rating
December 23rd, 2009 - 3:20 am ICT by IANS ( Leave a comment )New York, Dec 23 (DPA) New Yorkers, it seems, are the most unhappy bunch you can imagine in the US, a study published in Science magazine said Tuesday.
New York ranks 51st behind Connecticut (50) and New Jersey (49) in a list that includes Washington DC (37), according to the study by two academics, Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwich in Britain and Stephen Wu of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York.
New York, Connecticut and New Jersey form the largest metropolitan region in the US where millions of people commute to work every day in and out of New York City, inhabited by 8.4 million people. The region’s economy has been led by Wall Street, but not in the past two years.
The top 10 happiest states are, in descending order, Louisiana, Hawai, Florida, Tennessee, Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, South Carolina, Alabama and Maine. They are among the poorest states.
“It falls to a New Yorker to ask how it is, if this is such an unhappy place, that more people are living in the city than ever before: an estimated 8.4 million,” Oswald said in an article that was also printed in The New York Times. “That’s a very sensible point.”
“Many people,” he said, “do indeed think of states like New York and California as marvelous places to live in”.
“The problem,” Oswald said, “is that if too many individuals think that way, they move into those states, and the resulting congestion and house prices make it a nonfulfilling prophecy”.
Oswald and Wu used two previous surveys, one by the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which asked 1.3 million people about their health and happiness, and a state-by-state research by the University of California, Los Angeles, on quality-of-life gauges like climate, taxes, cost of living, commuting times, crime rates and schools.
The academics found that Americans who described themselves as happy live in states where quality of life is good by most standards, including housing and traffic.
Top-happiness-ranked Louisiana was hit by deadly hurricane Katrina in 2005. But data obtained on quality of life predated Katrina and the state is warm.
Sunny Californa ranks 46 in the happiness rating.
- New York saddest state in America, Louisiana happiest - Dec 19, 2009
- 13 dead, 1.6 mn without power after freak snowstorm in US (Lead) - Nov 01, 2011
- Highest suicide rates occur in happiest places - Apr 22, 2011
- 13 deaths, 1.7 million without power in US after snowstorm - Nov 01, 2011
- Hurricane Irene toll is 38; 5 mn in US still without power - Aug 30, 2011
- US snowstorm cuts power to millions - Oct 31, 2011
- Hurricane Irene kills 18, impacts millions in US - Aug 29, 2011
- New Jersey Governor Says 'Jersey Shore' is a Disgrace to State - Jul 26, 2010
- 90 percent happy with Delhi Metro - Apr 17, 2011
- New Jersey Governor isn't very fond of the TV show 'Jersey Shore' - Jul 27, 2010
- Hurricane Irene may be America's costliest catastrophe - Aug 31, 2011
- Weakened Irene causes little damage in New York - Aug 28, 2011
- Hurricane Irene slams Big Apple; leaves 3 mn powerless in US - Aug 28, 2011
- Spanish-speakers in US up 211 percent in 30 years - Apr 30, 2010
- Massive evacuation ordered in US due to flooding - Sep 09, 2011
Tags: andrew oswald, carolina alabama, centers for disease control and prevention, clinton new york, commuting times, disease control and prevention, health and happiness, living in the city, marvelous places, metropolitan region, montana south, new york dec, poorest states, stephen wu, times crime, unhappy place, university of california los angeles, warwich, york connecticut, york ranks
