Five of the twelve happiest states are in the Mountain West: Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, and Montana. My home state of Wyoming comes in at number three, right after Utah and Hawaii. Colorado is fourth, Idaho and Montana come in at eleventh and twelfth.
West coast states do well too. Washington ranks number seven, California ranks number nine. Even Oregon comes in at number eighteen.
States of the Southwest are more scattered: Arizona ranks tenth, New Mexico ranks 17th, and Nevada comes in at 38th. Whether you choose to add Texas to the southwest group is optional, it ranks 21st.
So, which states are less happy? Among the bottom quarter of the states, you see a cluster of "bible belt" states including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Another cluster are "rust belt" states: Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri. And finally two deep south states: Louisiana and Mississippi.
A final caveat: there isn't a great deal of practical difference between the states at the top and those at the bottom. Number one - Utah - has a score of 69.2 out of 100 whereas number 50 - West Virginia - scores 61.2 out of 100. If you like rounding off numbers, Utah got 7 out of 10 whereas West Virginia got 6 out of 10.
