New York is NOT one of the Happiest Places to Live in the United States
Okay, so living in New York can have some downfalls, but it's still a pretty happy place compared to many other states, right?
Well there's a new study out suggesting otherwise. Sure, we weren't named the most miserable state in the country, but we definitely aren't at the top. We couldn't even break into the top 10.
The study was conducted by the personal finance website "WalletHub." They used 28 different factors to rank each state. Some of these factors included depression rate, physical health index, life expectancy, income level, job security and satisfaction, average leisure time spent per day, and many, MANY other categories.
So we already know we weren't the happiest state, but where did we fall on the list? Well, according to WalletHub, New York is the 22nd happiest state... Which means we're pretty close to the middle. But hey, that means we're technically not an "unhappy" state, right?
So what things put us at such a "not-so-great" ranking?
As part of WalletHub's findings, they listed some of the best and worst states when it came to the factors they used for ranking the happiest states. New York fell short in the "volunteering" section, as the third worst state for volunteering. And we know when you volunteer, you feel good. So we can understand that playing a role into our ranking.
And we can understand as New York residents, there are quite a few things that make us unhappy. Whether it's dealing with high taxes, roads that are falling apart, long commute times (for those who suffer from that), depression rates, unemployment rates... The list goes on.
What should we do about this? Unfortunately, there isn't too much we can do. But we can make small changes in our own lives to increase our own happiness. If you have enough people doing that, in the factors that we can actually control, it will probably make a difference. Make sure you get exercise, make time for yourself, make time for loved ones, and have a hobby that you can enjoy in your free time. Just doing those few things will increase your own happiness, and in the end that's more important anyway.
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