The Most and Least Stressed States of 2010

News
By Jeanna Bryner
published

Many Americans are stressed out, it seems, but some states are more frazzled than others, according to a survey by Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

The results are based on telephone interviews conducted as Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2010, with a random sample of 352,840 adults, ages 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

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Here are the results listed from least to most stressed and the percent of residents who said they had experienced stress a lot of the prior day:

  1. Hawaii: 30.2 percent
  2. Wyoming: 34.4 percent
  3. North Dakota: 34.6 percent
  4. South Dakota: 35.5 percent
  5. District of Columbia: 36.7 percent
  6. Iowa: 37.7
  7. Georgia: 37.7
  8. Delaware: 37.9
  9. Louisiana: 38.0
  10. Nebraska: 38.1
  11. Wisconsin: 38.1
  12. Alaska: 38.3
  13. Minnesota: 38.6
  14. Texas: 38.7
  15. South Carolina: 38.8
  16. Kansas: 38.9
  17. Florida: 38.9
  18. Vermont: 39.0
  19. Pennsylvania: 39.2
  20. Arizona: 39.2
  21. New Mexico: 39.2
  22. Illinois: 39.3
  23. Maryland: 39.3
  24. California: 39.4
  25. Montana: 39.5
  26. Oklahoma: 39.5
  27. Alabama: 39.6
  28. Colorado: 39.6
  29. Arkansas: 39.6
  30. Mississippi: 39.7
  31. Virginia: 39.7
  32. New York: 39.8
  33. Missouri: 39.9
  34. Maine: 39.9
  35. New Jersey: 40.0
  36. Indiana: 40.2
  37. Tennessee: 40.3
  38. Michigan: 40.3
  39. Connecticut: 40.4
  40. North Carolina: 40.4
  41. Washington: 40.9
  42. Rhode Island: 41.0
  43. New Hampshire: 41.1
  44. Nevada: 41.2
  45. Ohio: 41.9
  46. Oregon: 42.3
  47. Massachusetts: 42.6
  48. Idaho: 43.0
  49. West Virginia: 43.6
  50. Kentucky: 44.9
  51. Utah: 45.1

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Jeanna Bryner
Jeanna Bryner
Live Science Editor-in-Chief

Jeanna served as editor-in-chief of Live Science. Previously, she was an assistant editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Jeanna 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. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.