Earlier this year, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Jim Stingl did some musin’ and thinkin’ about the glut of online studies (“Hardest-Working States in America,” “Best & Worst States to Have a Baby,” “Best Cities for LARPers,” etc.) and how Milwaukee and Wisconsin always seem to fall somewhere in the middle. “Yawn, these studies rank Wisconsin in the middle of the pack,” said Stingl. Yawn, indeed.
Which brings us to today’s installment in our never-ending Great Job, Milwaukee/Wisconsin! series: According to WalletHub, Wisconsin not only falls somewhere in the middle of “2019’s Happiest States in America,” it is the middle. Yep, out of 50 states, Wisconsin comes in at #25. Fascinating.
“To determine where Americans exhibit the best combination of these factors,” explains WalletHub, “we examined the 50 states across 31 key metrics, ranging from depression rate to sports participation rate to income growth.” The study continues:
In order to determine the happiest states in America, WalletHub compared the 50 states across three key dimensions: 1) Emotional & Physical Well-Being, 2) Work Environment and 3) Community & Environment.
We evaluated those dimensions using 31 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing maximum happiness.
Finally, we determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.
For those keeping score at home, Wisconsin ranked #22 in Emotional & Physical Well-Being, #20 in Work Environment, and #37 in Community & Environment. Hawaii is the happiest state in 2019, while West Virginia is the saddest.
Read the whole study HERE, and enjoy the feeling of emotional indifference that only Wisconsin can provide.