Well, Albany metro area
New York's didn't fare too well in these rankings. But it's not West Virginia.
The Albany-Schenectady-Troy metro area ranked #58 nationally in the annual Gallup-Healthways "Well-Being Index" for 2012 (out of 189 metros). That's a big jump from 2011, when it ranked 101. And it was the top score in the state (take that, Rochester).
The report surveys people across the country, asking them questions in six categories: life evaluation (current and the in the future), emotional health (happiness, sadness, worry), physical health, healthy behavior, work environment, and basic access to things like healthcare and healthy food.
The Albany metro's rise in the rankings appears to be attributable to big jumps in two categories: life evaluation (67 from 117) and work environment (74 from 128).
This metro's lowest ranked category was emotional health (#138), as it was in 2011 (#151). The emotional health category is based on questions about topics that include: smiling or laughter, being treated with respect, enjoyment, happiness, worry, sadness, anger, stress, learning or doing something interesting, depression.
The index also ranks states -- New York was #30. And two of its metros were near the very bottom of the rankings: Binghamton (176) and Utica-Rome (179).
The top ranked state in 2012 was Hawaii -- for the fourth straight year. West Virginia was last.
The top ranked metros, by size category: Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV (large), Lincoln, NE (mid-size), Burlington-South Burlington, VT (small).
The report for New York State is post jump.
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Comments
There's a section of the report that ranks 'well-being' by NYS Congressional District. It may be my imagination, but a rigorously-applied process of 'intraocular examination' (otherwise known as eyeballing) seems to reveal that the higher-ranked parts of NYS tend to have Democratic representatives.
... said Bob on Mar 5, 2013 at 3:08 PM | link