The Happiest States of America: North Dakota on the Rise

North Dakota is not only the most employment-rich state in the country. It’s also on its way to becoming the happiest.

According to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, based on a daily survey of Americans that tries to measure the elements of “the good life,” North Dakota is the second happiest state, behind Hawaii. (Hawaii has been the happiest state for a while now.) North Dakota has been in the Top 10 list for the last couple of years, but has been steadily climbing its way upward.

North Dakota’s Well-Being Index score has also moved up proportionally more than any other state in the last year.

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

The index is based on an average of six component indices, which reflect Americans’ answers to questions about how they evaluate their lives; their emotional health; how they feel about their work environment; their physical health; the kinds of healthy behaviors they do (or don’t) engage in; and how much access they have to basic necessities. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the state’s fleet-footed job growth, North Dakota’s score benefited most from respondents’ views of their work environment.

Dollars to doughnuts.

Poor West Virginia once again claimed the lowest rank in the latest Well-Being Index report, a spot where it has languished for several years. In general, Southern and Rust Belt states rank lowest on this index, while the Plains states and Pacific states rank best, as shown in the interactive map above.

The latest scores are based on daily polls conducted from January through June 2011, in which more than 177,000 American adults were surveyed.

The North Dakota Miracle

Forget the Texas Miracle. Let’s instead take a look at North Dakota, which has the lowest unemployment rate and the fastest job growth rate in the country.

According to new data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today, North Dakota had an unemployment rate of just 3.3 percent in July — that’s just over a third of the national rate (9.1 percent), and about a quarter of the rate of the state with the highest joblessness (Nevada, at 12.9 percent).

CATHERINE RAMPELL

Dollars to doughnuts.

North Dakota has had the lowest unemployment in the country (or was tied for the lowest unemployment rate in the country) every single month since July 2008.

Dollars to doughnuts.

Its healthy job market is also reflected in its payroll growth numbers. North Dakota had 19,700 more jobs in July than it did during the same month last year.

That probably sounds like small potatoes when you look at Texas, which had 269,500 more jobs last month than it did a year earlier. But Texas is a much bigger, more populous state, and had many more jobs to begin with. In terms of percentage growth, North Dakota has a better record: year over year, its payrolls grew by 5.2 percent. Texas came in second, with an increase of 2.6 percent.

Why is North Dakota doing so well? For one of the same reasons that Texas has been doing well: oil.