The Aloha state is the happiest in the United States, according to a new study from WalletHub. Utah is the second-happiest state, followed by Minnesota, California and New Jersey.
The study was conducted based on a variety of “happiness” factors, including emotional and physical well-being, work environment and general community and environment. The factors examined depression and suicide rates, the amount of sleep residents get each night, how many hours people spend at work, sports participation, unemployment rates, income growth, divorce rate and safety, among other things.
Hawaii has the lowest rate of adult depression in the U.S. at 11.88 percent. That’s 2.3 times lower than Maine, which has the highest depression rate with 26.89 percent. Hawaii also had the fifth-highest income growth and the fifth-lowest divorce rate, contributing to the overall happiness ranking.
The least happy states? West Virginia ranked 50th in the study. Arkansas, Alaska, Mississippi and Louisiana rounded out the bottom five. West Virginia had the second-highest share of depression and second-lowest rate of adequate sleep among its residents. Louisiana and Mississippi both ranked extremely low in the safety category and were among the states with the highest divorce rate.