PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 20 (UPI) -- Residents of North Dakota have the highest sense of well-being in the United States, while those in West Virginia have the lowest, a national index has found.
Overall, the nation's well-being fell slightly last year, said the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index released Thursday.
The index found North Dakota had the highest ranking, with a score of 70.4. South Dakota and Nebraska were close behind with scores of 70.0 and 69.7, respectively. West Virginia was in last place with an index score of 61.4.
The index measured six factors: life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors and access to basic necessities.
A score of 100 represented "ideal well-being," Gallup said.
The overall national index score slipped from 66.7 in 2012 to 66.2 last year.
North Dakota scored highest in two of the factors, work environment and physical health, while Nebraska was number one in life evaluation. Alaska scored highest in emotional health, Vermont in healthy behaviors and Massachusetts in basic access.
More than 178,000 adults in 50 states were interviewed for the survey, which was conducted throughout 2013. The margin of error is 1 to 2 percentage points for most states, but could be as high 4 percentage points for states with smaller populations, Gallup said.
Gallup and Heatlhways began the index in 2008.
