And hey, I live in the heart of it all – my congressional district’s well-being index (I’m in Ohio’s 11th, Marcia Fudge is my rep, replacing the late Stephanie Tubbs Jones) is 426 out of 435 -no wonder I feel so…not well.
According to the State and Congressional District Resource for Well-Being, “a product of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index,” my state, Ohio ranks 47th most “well” state (meaning, not very well at all) out of 50. The NYT blog, Economix, has a good explanation of what you can and can’t tell from this info – here’s the intro:
Want to be live among the happiest Americans? Move to Utah.
People in Utah report the highest levels of well-being, according to recent survey results from Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. West Virginia had the lowest score.
The index attempts to “measure what it is that people believe constitutes a good life, who is feeling good about life, and who is in need of a helping hand.” In general, the states where people reported feeling better about life were located primarily in the West, and lower well-being states were clustered in the Midwest and the South…
The Gallup Poll, in conjunction with the American Health Insurance Plans and Healthways, created what it calls “The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index” to rank factors that help measure well-being in America’s rural and urban communities. The effort, “an on-going daily survey that began in January 2008,” polls 1,000 Americans per day, 350 days per year, according to the survey’s Web site.
The poll studies “not only the absence of infirmity and disease, but also a state of physical, mental and social well-being,” pollsters say.
I’ve listed out the names and corresponding district and well-being score for all of Ohio’s 18 districts here.
How “well” is your district?