Get Happy

Howard Owens at The Batavian writes about a new Gallup well-being survey that ranks Congressional districts. Here's a summary of the four districts in the Rochester area, sorted by their overall self-reported well-being. The first number is a score, the second is the district's ranking out of all of the districts in the U.S.

District Well-Being Index Life Evaluation Work Quality Basic Access Healthy Behavior Physical Health Emotional Health
NY-26 65.9 - 187/435 35.7 - 339/435 49.6 - 283/435 88.4 - 32/435 64.7 - 142/435 76.9 - 218/435 80.3 - 70/435
NY-25 65.2 - 237/435 38.1 - 272/435 44.8 - 388/435 87.9 - 42/435 64.1 - 169/435 76.9 - 217/435 79.1 - 188/435
NY-29 64.3 - 297/435 32.0 - 394/435 47.4 - 349/435 85.6 - 131/435 65.2 - 112/435 76.0 - 279/435 79.6 - 137/435
NY-28 63.0 -
359/435
39.8 - 229/435 43.0 - 411/435 82.6 -
255/435
61.2 - 332/435 73.7 - 386/435 77.5 -
334/435

As you can see, only the sad-sack 28th ranks below us in well-being. Here's another chart, this time with Census demographics. Shockingly enough, it looks like income tracks the well-being index pretty closely.

District High-School Graduates College Graduates In Poverty: Any Age Household Income: Median
NY-26 85.7% - 105/435 25.5% - 155/435 6.9% - 376/435 $46,653 - 134/435
NY-25 85.8% - 102/435 27.8% - 125/435 10.4% - 241/435 $43,188 - 190/435
NY-29 85.6% - 108/435 26.1% - 146/435 9.9% - 259/435 $41,875 - 202/435
NY-28 79.2% -
285/435
21.2% - 247/435 18.7% -
65/435
$31,751 - 387/435

I was called for this survey last week, though I don't know what period this data is from. There's more information on what each of the well-being indexes means at Gallup's site.

Comments

"Well-Being Index." As fascinating as it is useless.

Yeah, it's fun with numbers. If I remember the survey correctly, in addition to the satisfaction (subjective) questions, they asked things like how many times I've done some activities (go to a doctor, exercise, etc.), so the physical health and access columns are probably more meaningful than the overall number.