Do You Live in One of the Happiest States?

Southern states are where it's at.

Plenty of sunshine and good air quality make for happy people. According to a new nation-wide survey of over three million Americans, the happiest people live in Louisiana, Hawaii and Florida, while some of the unhappiest live in New York and California.

The study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, collected data over four years that included question about how satisfied people were in their lives. This data was then compared to hard scientific data, like hours of sunlight, population, traffic and crime rates.

As expected, the results showed that the states that ranked best on these issues also ranked higher on the happiness scale.

The top five "happiest" states are Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida, Tennessee and Arizona.

"We wanted to study whether people's feelings of satisfaction with their own lives are reliable, that is, whether they match up to reality — of sunshine hours, congestion, air quality, etceteras — in their own state," said economist Andrew J. Oswald of the University of Warwick in England. "And they do match."

And as for why states like New York and California were at the bottom of the list, Oswald was only a little surprised.

"Many people think these states would be marvelous places to live in," he said. "The problem is that if too many individuals think that way, they move into those states, and the resulting congestion and house prices make it a non-fulfilling prophecy."