Happiest cities in US are in Louisiana; NYC is unhappiest (1 Viewer)

bienv

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New York City is the most unhappy city in America
New York City is the most unhappy city in America. That’s according to data coming from a working paper by Harvard professor Edward Glaeser, Vancouver School of Economics professor Joshua Gottlieb and Harvard doctoral student Oren Ziv. They used data collected in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, and then adjusted it for age, sex, race, income and other factors. (Such adjustments are important — women, for instance, are happier than men; the married are happier than single or divorced respondents; and so on.)

The happiest five cities are all in Louisiana, with Lafayette taking the crown (Louisiana is also the happiest state).

Lafayette, LA MSA 0.145806
Houma, LA MSA 0.133146
Shreveport-Bossier City, LA MSA 0.125351
Baton Rouge, LA MSA 0.101774
Alexandria, LA MSA 0.092616
 
Boston would be ranked as being the most aloof and ambivalent city...
Oh wait: SF would give us quite a run
 
New York state, as a whole is economically depressed. Moreso than the rest of the nation. My county is one of the worst in the state. We get the second most rainfall in the nation, after seattle.

God, I hate this place.
 
Growing up in S'port/Bossier and not having lived there in about 15 years, I find the fact that is #3 on a national happiness list pretty hard to believe...that said, it has come a long way since I left in terms of cool stuff to do.
 
I'd expect most Louisiana residents to question any study which finds Alexandria, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport among the top 5 happiest cities in the US. Monroe at 17th happiest is equally puzzling. The findings also conflict with all direct happiness surveys that I'm aware of.

Given the abnormal dominance of some states in the rankings and conflict with all surveys it seems likely that their methodology and/or data is flawed. The study notes that the CDC survey they used could be biased because it's administered independently by each state. The results also seem overly weighted in favor of poor/low cost of living areas compared to self reported happiness in surveys. The maze of equations beyond that is too thick for me to wade through.
 
I'd expect most Louisiana residents to question any study which finds Alexandria, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport among the top 5 happiest cities in the US. Monroe at 17th happiest is equally puzzling. The findings also conflict with all direct happiness surveys that I'm aware of.

Given the abnormal dominance of some states in the rankings and conflict with all surveys it seems likely that their methodology and/or data is flawed. The study notes that the CDC survey they used could be biased because it's administered independently by each state. The results also seem overly weighted in favor of poor/low cost of living areas compared to self reported happiness in surveys. The maze of equations beyond that is too thick for me to wade through.




Why can't you just be happy for us?




:ezbill:
 
I think I see a major flaw in the study...

(Such adjustments are important — women, for instance, are happier than men; the married are happier than single or divorced respondents; and so on.)
 
I'd expect most Louisiana residents to question any study which finds Alexandria, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport among the top 5 happiest cities in the US. Monroe at 17th happiest is equally puzzling. The findings also conflict with all direct happiness surveys that I'm aware of.

I have often surveyed my own happiness when visiting (even living in Monroe shortly) some of these. I would not have helped those numbers

Grumpy-Cat.jpg


People don't drive happy in Lafayette.

or at all safely

dont-drive-angry.jpg
 
I'd expect most Louisiana residents to question any study which finds Alexandria, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport among the top 5 happiest cities in the US. Monroe at 17th happiest is equally puzzling. The findings also conflict with all direct happiness surveys that I'm aware of.

Given the abnormal dominance of some states in the rankings and conflict with all surveys it seems likely that their methodology and/or data is flawed. The study notes that the CDC survey they used could be biased because it's administered independently by each state. The results also seem overly weighted in favor of poor/low cost of living areas compared to self reported happiness in surveys. The maze of equations beyond that is too thick for me to wade through.

I spent 2 weeks in Spokane for company training back in the 80s I understand your bitterness lol

Alex isn't that bad unless you're looking for bar scene , decent salaries for the cost of living here , no traffic and plenty of hunting , fishing , hiking etc

Also close enough to BR , Lafayette for day trips

It's all relative I lived in DFW for 17 yrs and grew to hate it
 
Louisiana ranks #48 in life expectancy. Don't have all the sick cranky old people dragging down the numbers.
 
I spent 2 weeks in Spokane for company training back in the 80s I understand your bitterness lol

Alex isn't that bad unless you're looking for bar scene , decent salaries for the cost of living here , no traffic and plenty of hunting , fishing , hiking etc

Also close enough to BR , Lafayette for day trips

It's all relative I lived in DFW for 17 yrs and grew to hate it

I'll happily challenge you to an August hike off and we can see who's happier at the end. :hihi:

Eastern WA is a different world than Western WA...sort of like North VS South Louisiana on steroids. Spokane would be closer to our Shreveport.

I'm actually familiar with other health/wellness/happiness surveys because the local news often reports Bellingham's good performance (and because I'm a polling geek).

Here's the map from the latest Gallup/Healthways survey compared to the map from the cited study.

galluphealthwaysmap.jpg


cdcadjustedhappiness.jpg


These are the latest city rankings from Gallup:

Top Large Communities:
1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
2. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
3. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
4. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
5. Denver-Aurora, CO
6. Raleigh-Cary, NC
7. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH
8. Austin-Round Rock, TX
9. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
10. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA

Top Mid-size Communities:
1. Provo-Orem, UT
2. Boulder, CO
3. Fort Collins-Loveland, CO
4. Honolulu, HI
5. Ann Arbor, MI
6. Naples-Marco Island, FL
7. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA
8. Lincoln, NE
9. Portland-South Portland-Biddeford, ME
10. Madison, WI

Top Small Communities:
1. Bellingham, WA
2. Billings, MT
3. Barnstable, MA
4. Burlington-South Burlington, VT
5. Sioux Falls, SD
6. Charlottesville, VA
7. Medford, OR
8. Prescott, AZ
9. Yakima, WA
10. Topeka, KS

Those are much different findings so one of them must be incorrect or using a much different measure of happiness.

Gallup also found that Louisiana residents rank 4th least likely to view their state as among the best states to live in. Lafayette occasionally ranks well on happiness/well being/optimism surveys with health factors being their major downfall in comprehensive surveys.

Any statistics nerd would question the BRFSS study since it's highly unlikely for every Louisiana metro but New Orleans to rank in the top 17. Having lived in or within an hour of of 4 of those metros for most of my life I certainly question the findings. Based on other surveys, desirability, demographics, and personal experience the Gallup results seem closer to reality.
 

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