How do you measure happiness?  The personal finance website WalletHub attempts to do that with a survey of the 50 states in terms of economic, emotional, physical and social health using 31 categories.  When all of those factors were measured it turns out that New York State emerges as the 14th happiest state in America.

  • New York had the lowest percentage of depressed residents among the 50 states.
  • New York had the second lowest suicide rate.
  • New York ranked 5th in emotional and physical well-being
  • New York ranked 17th in income growth.
  • New York ranked 18th in separation and divorce rate.
  • New York was ranked 23rd in safety.

The study also looked into how much of a factor income has on happiness and found that happiness increases with wealth only up to an annual income of $75,000.

When all of the factors were sorted out Hawaii emerged as the happiest state.

The least happy state?  West Virginia.

Here is the complete WalletHub report:

Source: WalletHub

More From 106.5 WYRK