NJ Is One Of The Happiest States In America

Other than heavy traffic, pollution and long steady rains that leave your socks sopping wet, there’s not a lot of reason to be glum in New Jersey – or so says an analysis that claims to report the happiest and unhappiest states in America.

New Jersey, the state with the honking car horns and other cranky claims to fame, is the fifth happiest state in the country. Yes, fifth.

To determine where Americans are the happiest, the personal finance website, WalletHub, examined the 50 states across 31 key metrics, ranging from depression rate, to job satisfaction, to separation and divorce rates.

Each relevant metric was then listed with its corresponding weight, and then graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing maximum happiness — the 31 weighted scores were then put together to give each state an individual score.

New Jersey had a strong showing across most of the 31 metrics, according to the report. New Jersey finished 2nd in “emotional and physical well-being” and lowest suicide rate.

Money isn’t a driver of happiness, but it can increase it, according to the study — “Happiness only increases with wealth up to an annual income of $75,000 to $95,000.” An analysis from the journal Nature Human Behavior found that the $95,000 mark is ideal for “life evaluation,” which includes long-term goals, peer comparisons, and other macro-level metrics.

These are the states that made the top 10 of WalletHub’s rankings:

1. Hawaii: 66.48
2. Utah: 65.93
3. Minnesota: 65.57
4. California: 64.11
5. New Jersey: 60.54
6. Idaho: 60.51
7. Massachusetts: 60.50
8. Maryland: 59.53
9. Nebraska: 59.04
10. Connecticut: 57.93

Utah had the fewest hours worked in the country, as well as the highest volunteer rates, and the lowest divorce rate. Texas on the other hand finished as the least safe state in the U.S., and Oregon had the highest share of adult depression.

West Virginia took home the lowly honor of the unhappiest state.

Overall the 10 least happiest states in the country were:

40. New Mexico: 44.91
41. Missouri: 42.99
42. Tennessee: 42.75
43. Oklahoma: 40.56
44. Alabama: 40.11
45. Kentucky: 38.86
46. Louisiana: 38.41
47. Mississippi: 38.28
48. Alaska: 36.48
49. Arkansas: 34.07
50. West Virginia: 33.73