Not everyone can live in a blissful state, either emotionally or quite literally. So we decided to find out which states are the unhappiest, based on four data categories we can all agree are quite unhappy: alcohol deaths, poverty rate, self-reported obesity, and suicide rate. Unfortunately, if your state is first on this list, it’s the saddest state in the United States.
A couple words on methodology: We ranked each of the 50 states in our four categories of unhappiness:
We decided suicide rate should be worth double since it’s such a strong barometer of unhappiness.
A quick example: If Montana was first in suicides per 100,000 people, it earned a total of 100 points in that one category. (And this is like golf, points are bad.) At the end, we added up all the totals and the states with the most points are deemed the unhappiest. Here’s a full list, for our non-visual learners:
