Happiest U.S. States Pinned Down

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.

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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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Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.