how's your state for happiness??

Not your state of happiness, but your state for happiness － according to the Well-Being Index, a continuing daily survey of Americans' overall well-being, which just released its rankings by state (and Congressional district, for nit-pickers) for the past year.

The top ten included Utah, Hawai'i, Wyoming, Colorado, Minnesota, Maryland, Washington, Massachusetts, California and Arizona.

The bottom ten included Louisiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Missouri, Indiana, Arkansas, Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky and West Virginia.

The Well-Being Index is a 25-year partnership between Gallup, Healthways and America's Health Insurance Plans that began conducting daily surveys of 1,000 Americans for 350 days a year in January 2008. The survey is made up of 42 core questions based upon six indices of well-being: life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, healthy behavior, work environment and basic access (to necessities).

Overall, the highest well-being scores tended to come from Western states, while Southern states tended to contribute the lowest scores.

Even though money can't buy happiness directly, some of the variations among states and Congressional districts definitely trended along income levels.