Kansas--32; Missouri, 38. 'nuff said

From Yahoo! News, just now:

Happiest U.S. States Pinned Down

By Jeanna Bryner, Managing Editor

17 December 2009 02:00 pm ET

A new study found that a person's self-reported happiness matches up with objective measures of state-level happiness.

The results are based on an examination of two data sets, one that included personal reports of happiness for 1.3 million Americans and the other that included objective measures, such as how crowded that state is, air quality, home prices and other factors known to impact quality of life.

Click here to learn more about the survey and what it means.

Here are the 50 U.S. states (and the District of Columbia) in order of their well-being:

1. Louisiana
2. Hawaii
3. Florida
4. Tennessee
5. Arizona
6. Mississippi
7. Montana
8. South Carolina
9. Alabama
10. Maine
11. Alaska
12. North Carolina
13. Wyoming
14. Idaho
15. South Dakota
16. Texas
17. Arkansas
18. Vermont
19. Georgia
20. Oklahoma
21. Colorado
22. Delaware
23. Utah
24. New Mexico
25. North Dakota
26. Minnesota
27. New Hampshire
28. Virginia
29. Wisconsin
30. Oregon
31. Iowa
32. Kansas
33. Nebraska
34. West Virginia
35. Kentucky
36. Washington
37. District of Columbia
38. Missouri
39. Nevada
40. Maryland
41. Pennsylvania
42. Rhode Island
43. Massachusetts
44. Ohio
45. Illinois
46. California
47. Indiana
48. Michigan
49. New Jersey
50. Connecticut
51. New York
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Don't get me wrong, I like Kansas City and Missouri but could we maybe work on this?

I also have to say, I think that getting the Performing Arts Center downtown will help our area a great deal and, secondly--and not connected at all to the first thought--I get some solace in knowing New York state is 51--worst in the country, by this comparison, while sunny Southern California is--believe it?--46th?, oceans, mountains and all? Yikes.

Have a great weekend, y'all.

Links: http://www.livescience.com/culture/091217-happy-state-list.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20091217/sc_livescience/happieststatesrevealedbynewresearch