Best and Worst States For Your Well Being & Livability

February 27, 2012

Western states still boast the best wellbeing & livability, Southern states the worst. One thing I can tell you about these western states is they will SHUN you if you have a NY, NY, MA, IL, CA attitude! So don't think you are going to move there and "flip houses" or drive an Escalade. You will not be well received at all, and will in fact be run out of town. They welcome people who want to assimilate. Buy a pick-up truck, some Carharts and live a simple life without running your east coast New Jersey mouth and you will fit right in.

Here is a post copied from City-Data thats sums up what is wrong with people moving from places like New York to ruin places like Vermont. He write "Vermont is anti-development and that is a shame" - WTF? Do you want to turn every wild area into a condo development - you ignorant POS!:

Earning a Living in Southern Vermont Posted by NYtoVT on 11/24/06 "My wife and I retired and moved to a really small town in Vermont. Needless to say, the culture shock was incredible. Another poster mentioned that Vt is a beautiful state and it is. It's just too bad that the only people that can afford Vermont are "flatlanders" who bring in money from out-of-state but that can't and won't last forever. For the most part, Vermont is anti-development and that is a shame. I guess that's the reason why the state only has 650k people in it.
With the passage of Act 60 and later Act 68, school taxes are a nightmare and a total mess. School taxes are levied by the State for God sake with minimal local control.
Other posts in this thread have mentioned that many people work two or more jobs to make ends meet. I would agree with that although one thing puzzles me. Why is it that when YOU WANT TO GIVE SOMEONE MONEY to do work for you, they NEVER call you back. If they DO call you back and make an appointment, they don't show up. I just don't get it.
From reading the local papers, it seems that the two biggest social problems in Vermont are domestic violence and substance abuse. Not good".


by Melanie Standish
               WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Hawaii residents had the highest wellbeing in the
nation in 2011 with a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index score of 70.2,
maintaining that state's No. 1 status for a third consecutive year.
North Dakota, Minnesota, Utah, and Alaska rounded out the top five
states. West Virginia residents had the lowest wellbeing, with a score
of 62.3, slightly improved from 61.7 in 2010.




These state-level data are based on daily surveys conducted from January
through December 2011. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is
calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, where a score of 100 represents ideal
wellbeing.
The Well-Being Index score for the nation was 66.2 in 2011, down
slightly from 66.8 in 2010 and the lowest score Gallup and Healthways
have recorded since tracking began in 2008. The decrease in the overall
score in 2011 is because of small declines across all six of the
sub-indexes that comprise the Well-Being Index.






Most of the state-level scores, however, were statistically unchanged in 2011 from 2010.

Western States Continue to Have Higher Wellbeing, Southern States Lower

Overall, Western and Midwestern states earned 9 of the 10 highest
wellbeing scores, while Southern states accounted for half of the 10
lowest wellbeing scores.

This overarching geographic pattern in wellbeing has been consistent over the past four years.



Top and Bottom Performers in the Six Key Areas of Wellbeing

Hawaii's high scores on the Emotional Health and Healthy Behaviors
Indexes helped the state hold onto its top spot overall. In terms of
emotional health specifically, Hawaii residents were the most likely to
say they smiled or laughed a lot "yesterday" and the least likely to
report daily worry or stress and to have ever been diagnosed with
depression. Residents' good eating and exercise habits and lower smoking
rates earned them the distinction of having the best healthy behaviors
in the nation.

Alaskans were the most likely to rate their lives highly enough to be
"thriving," giving them the highest Life Evaluation score in the
nation, while West Virginians were the least likely to do so, putting
them in last place on this metric. West Virginia also remained the state
with the highest percentage of obese residents, contributing to its
last-place ranking on the Physical Health Index.

Massachusetts led on access to basic necessities, as it did in 2010,
with a Basic Access score of 86.6. This high rating is partly a result
of the high percentage of residents who have health insurance in the
state. The Basic Access Index also measures residents' access to other
items essential to wellbeing, including enough money for food, shelter,
and medicine; a safe place to exercise; and satisfaction with one's
community. Mississippi performed the worst in this area, as it did last
year.

North Dakota workers reported the best work environments in the
country. Delaware workers had the worst workplace perceptions for the
third year in a row. The Work Environment Index measures issues that
include a trusting and open work environment and whether an employee is
able to use his or her strengths to do what he or she does best every
day.





Implications

Wellbeing across states remains essentially static, reflecting the
continuing sluggish economy. While some states are standouts year after
year, even those places have yet to see significant improvement in
residents' overall wellbeing since the financial crisis of 2008.

Improving wellbeing poses a challenge for leaders as many states
continue to face severe fiscal problems, reductions in public services,
public-sector layoffs or salary cuts, and decreases in federal aid. High
unemployment, static or declining salaries, and overwhelming debt
burdens -- all of which have the potential to affect different aspects
of wellbeing -- continue to challenge residents.

While trying to rebuild America's economy and decrease unemployment,
finding resources to fund access to basic services, preventative
healthcare, and quality education can be difficult. A long-term
commitment by the public and private sector to focus on job
growth and develop the economy may go a long way toward resolving
overwhelming costs associated with economic recovery. Additionally,
employers who take a holistic approach to employees' wellbeing, such as
offering incentives to quit smoking or regularly attend a gym, can play a vital role in decreasing organizational and societal costs related to poor wellbeing.

If you want to find the U.S. states and regions with the brightest
future, look west. Gallup analysis shows that the West North Central,
Mountain, and Pacific regions are likely to be the best areas to live in
20 years, based on the strong economic, health, and community
foundations they are building today.

The combination -- or lack -- of strong economics, good health, and vibrant communities positions regions for the future.

The best place to live in 2032 will have tackled unemployment,
financial worry, healthcare costs, obesity, and education challenges. It
will be a place where most residents are healthy, optimistic, employed
in good jobs they love, and enthusiastic about their communities.

But community and business leaders, take note: The future of your
community, state, or region isn't sealed. You can adopt important
concepts now that can influence your area's chances of being the best
place to live in 20 years. Here are some specific suggestions for
turning these ideas into action.

The best -- and worst -- places to live in 2032

To see into the future, Gallup examined 13 forward-looking metrics
encompassing economic, workplace, and community factors as well as
personal choices that might predict future livability. (For details on
these metrics, see the sidebar "How Gallup Computed the Rankings" at the
end of this article.)

The West North Central region, which includes Minnesota, Iowa,
Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas, is the
region poised for the brightest future. Workers in this area are most
likely to be employed full time for an employer in the type of good jobs
associated with high GDP. Residents have the highest economic
confidence in the nation, setting the region up for a strong economic
future. They are also the most likely to report easy access to clean,
safe water, meaning that this region is best positioned to address one
of the critical resource challenges of the future.

The Mountain region, which includes Montana, Arizona, Colorado,
Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and New Mexico, comes in second, buoyed by
the lowest obesity rate in the nation and the most widespread access to
safe places to exercise. The Pacific region, comprised of California,
Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and Alaska, comes in a close third, with the
lowest smoking rate in the nation, quality workplace relationships, and
the highest percentage of residents who say they learn new and
interesting things daily.

The combination of strong economics, good health, and vibrant
communities positions the West North Central, Mountain, and Pacific
regions for a bright future. For other areas of the U.S., though, the
future is not so bright. The East South Central region, which includes
Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, trails on several
critical metrics and performed worst overall of the nine regions. People
in this region are the least likely to be employed in good jobs or to
learn new and interesting things daily, and they have the lowest
economic confidence. They are also the most likely nationwide to be
obese, to smoke, and to lack a safe place to exercise. That's a killer
combination, and it won't help this area build the productive, healthy
society of the future.

Beyond the overall rankings, regions also show differences on key
measures. The West South Central region, which comes in fourth overall,
has the highest score in the nation on the Job Creation Index. Residents
are also the most optimistic about their standard of living, with 54%
saying that their standard of living is getting better, compared with
30% who said it is getting worse. This region also does best in future
life evaluation and city optimism, which suggests that there is positive
momentum for the future.

But physical health is holding several regions back. In the West
South Central region, obesity stands at a hefty 29%, second only to the
30% found in the East South Central region. Residents of the East South
Central region are also the least likely to have visited the dentist,
setting this region up for high healthcare costs in the future.

Similarly, 23% of people in the East North Central region are
smokers, compared with 16% in the Pacific region. This sets up the
Pacific region for significantly fewer incidences of lung cancer,
emphysema, and heart disease down the road.

When it comes to water quality, 6% of residents of the West South
Central region say they lack access to clean water. This is twice the 3%
of residents of the West North Central region who say the same. That
amounts to a difference of 1.1 million people who don't have access to
clean water at a time when it is expected to become increasingly scarce
worldwide.

Workplaces are also a critical component of working Americans'
everyday wellbeing, and they provide the economic energy of a community.
The Pacific region leads in this category: 58% of workers characterize
their relationship with their supervisor as a partnership that fosters
productivity and an entrepreneurial spirit.

The Middle Atlantic region scores the lowest on the Supervisor
Relationship metric. It also has the lowest city optimism and Job
Creation Index score of all nine regions.


Source: http://businessjournal.gallup.com/content/155510/live-2032.aspx