Gallup-Sharecare examines well-being across the nation, including how well-being varies by states. They define well-being as a composite of the following elements:

  1. Purpose: liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals
  2. Social: having supportive relationships and love in your life
  3. Financial: managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security
  4. Community: liking where you live, feeling safe, and having pride in your community
  5. Physical: having good health and enough energy to get things done daily

The Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index just came out with their 2017 well-being ranking of US states. Focusing on the states with the lowest rankings, I thought I'd look for correlates of low well-being. Inequality was a prime candidate since much has been written about the possible effect of inequality on well-being. Luckily, the states are regularly ranked according to the Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality. Also,  a recent paper in Nature made the case that climate change will lead to more suicides in the US, noting that "mental well-being deteriorates during warmer periods". So I looked into which states have the worst summer weather. Here's what I came up with:

2018 Income Inequality+Well-Being+The Weather.png

Bad weather seems to decrease well-being more than inequality. Maybe the weather impacts the "purpose" and "physical" aspects of well-being the most.  When you're hot and sweaty and there's no relief, it's hard to have the energy or inclination to pursue challenging goals. Or just to get stuff done.  Mmmm....something to mull over for a while.

References:

Gallup-Sharecare Well-Being Index, State 2017 Rankings https://wellbeingindex.sharecare.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Gallup-Sharecare-State-of-American-Well-Being_2017-State-Rankings_FINAL.pdf?t=1518473023878

Burke, M., F. González, et al. (2018). "Higher temperatures increase suicide rates in the United States and Mexico." Nature Climate Change.

Here's how all 50 U.S. states compare, ranked from most to least income inequality. https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/12/us-states-with-the-highest-levels-of-income-inequality.html