Here’s how NJ ranked one of the happiest states in America

What does it take to be happy? Someone recently said to me they worry that if they start feeling happy, maybe they will only think they are happy and be mistaken. Holy existential crisis!

Well, some of us might find the answers to happiness on a mountaintop or at a monastery. But this one is coming from WalletHub.

The site boiled a 50-state ranking down to the categories of Emotional & Physical Well-Being, Work Environment, and Community & Environment. Using 30 different metrics, they assigned point values to rank the happiest states.

So how is it that New Jersey, where people are struggling with such an expensive cost of living and high property taxes, is the fourth-happiest state?

It wasn’t our work environment. We ranked 23rd there. And it certainly wasn’t the ranking of the category of community and environmental issues, which was 36th.

SEE ALSO: HGTV named this charming jewel the best small town in NJ

New Jersey’s emotional and physical well-being ranked number one, above all other states, putting us at fourth fourth-happiest state overall.

We have the lowest suicide rate in the United States. We have the second-lowest divorce rate. We have the lowest adult depression rate of all fifty states.

Somehow, as hard as those other categories might be in New Jersey, we’re not letting it get to us. We’re keeping our heads and our relationships together.

Who is happier? Nebraska, Maryland, and Hawaii are third, second, and first, respectively. The least happy states are Arkansas, Louisiana, and West Virginia. See the whole report here.