Are We Happy? Where Utah Ranks On The Definitive Happiness List

How do you define happiness?

Having enough money? A joyful marriage? Great kids? A big house? Religious peace?

Financial website WalletHub attempted to qualify what happiness is by evaluating our 50 US States in several key areas with the main categories being "emotional and physical well-being," "work environment," and "community and environment."

WalletHub's experts said: "Happiness is more than a feeling of joy or excitement. It relies on various aspects of a person’s life — from emotional well-being to job satisfaction."

Sadly, only 47 percent of Americans said in a national poll that they were "very satisfied" with their lives.

But Utah can be proud as the Beehive State finished fourth among the 50 states in happiness. Utah ranked No. 1 in work environment and community and environment.

In the emotional and physical well-being category (which was worth half of the possible 100 points in the study), WalletHub looked at career, physical health, possibility of childhood trauma, occurrence of depression, social well-being, sports participation, alcohol use, sleep rate, suicide rate and life expectancy, among a few others.

Utah ranked just 27th in this category, with high suicide rate and higher instances of depression part of the reason our state was dragged down the list.

However, Utah scored well, ranking No. 1 in the other two main categories, work environment and community and environment.

Work environment takes into account commute times, unemployment rate, work stress, economic security and credit score.

Community and environment takes into account volunteer rate (we were No. 1), divorce rate, safety and ideal weather.

The top state in the USA was (no surprise) Hawaii, followed by two east coast states, Maryland and New Jersey.

At the bottom of the list, West Virginia was No. 48 and Arkansas was No. 49.

The least happy state in America, according to WalletHub's rating system, was Louisiana (maybe it's the alligators).

To see the full study, click here.

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