Do You Live In The Happiest City In America? This Map Shows Where People Are Miserable And Where They Love Life

By using data from a CDC survey called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, as well as other sources, researchers from Harvard University and the Vancouver School were able to determine where the unhappiest, as well as the happiest, people reside in the country. Lucky for us, since I don’t understand science-y words for shit, they put it all into a nifty little map. Dunno about the rest of you guys, but if my daily information isn’t delivered to me in map-format these days, then I don’t even look at it.

The five happiest are Lafayette, Houma, Shreveport-Bossier City, Baton Rouge and Alexandria, which are all located in Louisiana. In what I doubt is a coincidence, Louisiana also has the two cities that have the most sex and use the most prescription drugs, so the good people of Louisiana were probably just high on meds and all sexxed-up when they took the survey.

The unhappiest cities? Scranton, Eerie and Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, Gary, Indiana, and New York City. Pittsburgh also has the most alcohol abuse, so everyone there being drunkenly miserable comes as no surprise. As for Scranton, duh, have you seen The Office? Everyone looks suicidal.

However, there’s some hope for you if you’re stuck in one of the miserable cities.

“One of the study’s authors, Harvard’s Edward Glaeser, suggested in May that the happiness rankings weren’t necessarily indicative of whether or not the cities were desirable places to live, because ‘thinking happiness is the be-all and end-all to judging how effective a municipality is operating for its citizens’ is a mistake. Cities that are highly competitive might be less happy because citizens are constantly surrounded by people who arericher or more successful than them, such as New Yorkers. Larger cities may be less affordable and thus more stressful, but are also more productive and interesting. The happier places may just be safe but bland; it’s a trade-off.”

Via Mic

[H/T Mic]