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Can You Afford To Live in America’s Happiest States?

February 13, 2025

7 min Read

Written by Jordan Rosenfeld

Edited by Gary Dudak

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While happiness may be a subjective experience, certain factors go into shaping it for people, such as work environment, community and emotional and physical well-being. People often choose where they’re going to live based on a combination of these factors and, of course, cost of living.

While the cost of living varies from state to state, so does the happiness quotient — that is, people report being more or less happy based on where they live due to those factors mentioned above.

To rank the states by overall happiness, GOBankingRates analyzed WalletHub’s Happiest States list and combined with median income, cost of living and mortgages in each state.

Read on to find out how the states rank based on these measures.

50. Alaska

Happiness quotient: 42.2
Median household income: $86,370
Cost of living index: 125.2
Total monthly cost of living: $4,810.93

49. Hawaii

Happiness quotient: 66.4
Median household income: $94,814
Cost of living index: 180.3
Total monthly cost of living: $8,230.69

48. West Virginia

Happiness quotient: 35.1
Median household income: $55,217
Cost of living index: 87.7
Total monthly cost of living: $2,827.01

47. Louisiana

Happiness quotient: 35.9
Median household income: $57,852
Cost of living index: 91.0
Total monthly cost of living: $3,030.13

46. Oregon

Happiness quotient: 47.7
Median household income: $76,632
Cost of living index: 114.7
Total monthly cost of living: $5,044.62

45. New Mexico

Happiness quotient: 43.5
Median household income: $58,722
Cost of living index: 94.0
Total monthly cost of living: $3,653.31

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44. Montana

Happiness quotient: 49.1
Median household income: $66,341
Cost of living index: 102.9
Total monthly cost of living: $4,652.78

43. Mississippi

Happiness quotient: 41.4
Median household income: $52,985
Cost of living index: 86.3
Total monthly cost of living: $2,854.60

42. Tennessee

Happiness quotient: 38.3
Median household income: $64,035
Cost of living index: 90.3
Total monthly cost of living: $3,641.00

41. Arkansas

Happiness quotient: 39.7
Median household income: $56,335
Cost of living index: 89.0
Total monthly cost of living: $2,982.69

40. Alabama

Happiness quotient: 40.8
Median household income: $59,609
Cost of living index: 88.3
Total monthly cost of living: $3,142.68

39. Kentucky

Happiness quotient: 40.6
Median household income: $60,183
Cost of living index: 92.0
Total monthly cost of living: $3,039.06

38. California

Happiness quotient: 60.5
Median household income: $91,905
Cost of living index: 138.5
Total monthly cost of living: $6,915.25

37. Maine

Happiness quotient: 52.0
Median household income: $68,251
Cost of living index: 109.9
Total monthly cost of living: $4,319.43

36. Nevada

Happiness quotient: 50.7
Median household income: $71,646
Cost of living index: 101.0
Total monthly cost of living: $4,637.38

35. Vermont

Happiness quotient: 52.8
Median household income: $74,014
Cost of living index: 115.3
Total monthly cost of living: $4,423.59

34. Oklahoma

Happiness quotient: 44.1
Median household income: $61,364
Cost of living index: 86.2
Total monthly cost of living: $3,050.06

33. Washington

Happiness quotient: 54.9
Median household income: $90,325
Cost of living index: 116.0
Total monthly cost of living: $5,672.61

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32. Indiana

Happiness quotient: 46.5
Median household income: $67,173
Cost of living index: 91.0
Total monthly cost of living: $3,329.99

31. Ohio

Happiness quotient: 47.8
Median household income: $66,990
Cost of living index: 94.7
Total monthly cost of living: $3,273.14

30. Arizona

Happiness quotient: 53.5
Median household income: $72,581
Cost of living index: 108.4
Total monthly cost of living: $4,561.57

29. North Carolina

Happiness quotient: 53.6
Median household income: $66,186
Cost of living index: 95.3
Total monthly cost of living: $3,857.01

28. Wyoming

Happiness quotient: 48.1
Median household income: $72,495
Cost of living index: 92.4
Total monthly cost of living: $3,893.85

27. Massachusetts

Happiness quotient: 58.4
Median household income: $96,505
Cost of living index: 146.5
Total monthly cost of living: $5,916.60

26. Rhode Island

Happiness quotient: 52.4
Median household income: $81,370
Cost of living index: 110.7
Total monthly cost of living: $4,679.95

25. South Carolina

Happiness quotient: 55.3
Median household income: $63,623
Cost of living index: 95.3
Total monthly cost of living: $3,633.22

24. Texas

Happiness quotient: 47.7
Median household income: $73,035
Cost of living index: 92.7
Total monthly cost of living: $3,679.83

23. Missouri

Happiness quotient: 48.6
Median household income: $65,920
Cost of living index: 88.5
Total monthly cost of living: $3,263.37

22. Colorado

Happiness quotient: 51.5
Median household income: $87,598
Cost of living index: 105.1
Total monthly cost of living: $5,197.62

21. Idaho

Happiness quotient: 59.3
Median household income: $70,214
Cost of living index: 98.6
Total monthly cost of living: $4,556.23

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20. Florida

Happiness quotient: 59.3
Median household income: $67,917
Cost of living index: 100.7
Total monthly cost of living: $4,368.41

19. Michigan

Happiness quotient: 50.2
Median household income: $68,505
Cost of living index: 90.6
Total monthly cost of living: $3,287.58

18. New Hampshire

Happiness quotient: 57.3
Median household income: $90,845
Cost of living index: 114.1
Total monthly cost of living: $5,014.45

17. New York

Happiness quotient: 56.7
Median household income: $81,386
Cost of living index: 125.9
Total monthly cost of living: $4,620.09

16. Wisconsin

Happiness quotient: 55.7
Median household income: $72,458
Cost of living index: 95.1
Total monthly cost of living: $3,741.76

15. Pennsylvania

Happiness quotient: 54.0
Median household income: $73,170
Cost of living index: 95.6
Total monthly cost of living: $3,541.01

14. Georgia

Happiness quotient: 54.1
Median household income: $71,355
Cost of living index: 90.8
Total monthly cost of living: $3,792.47

13. South Dakota

Happiness quotient: 55.9
Median household income: $69,457
Cost of living index: 92.4
Total monthly cost of living: $3,630.21

12. Kansas

Happiness quotient: 54.5
Median household income: $69,747
Cost of living index: 87.1
Total monthly cost of living: $3,207.92

11. Iowa

Happiness quotient: 55.0
Median household income: $70,571
Cost of living index: 90.3
Total monthly cost of living: $3,199.88

10. Delaware

Happiness quotient: 58.7
Median household income: $79,325
Cost of living index: 101.1
Total monthly cost of living: $4,209.06

9. North Dakota

Happiness quotient: 58
Median household income: $73,959
Cost of living index: 94.6
Total monthly cost of living: $3,499.27

8. Connecticut

Happiness quotient: 60.7
Median household income: $90,213
Cost of living index: 112.8
Total monthly cost of living: $4,564.38

7. Nebraska

Happiness quotient: 58.9
Median household income: $71,722
Cost of living index: 90.9
Total monthly cost of living: $3,388.09

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6. Illinois

Happiness quotient: 56.2
Median household income: $78,433
Cost of living index: 92.1
Total monthly cost of living: $3,439

5. Virginia

Happiness quotient: 57.7
Median household income: $87,249
Cost of living index: 101.9
Total monthly cost of living: $4,227.56

4. New Jersey

Happiness quotient: 62
Median household income: $97,126
Cost of living index: 113.9
Total monthly cost of living: $5,113.93

3. Minnesota

Happiness quotient: 62.8
Median household income: $84,313
Cost of living index: 94.1
Total monthly cost of living: $3,905.28

2. Utah

Happiness quotient: 69.8
Median household income: $86,833
Cost of living index: 103.2
Total monthly cost of living: $4,993.59

1. Maryland

Happiness quotient: 64.6
Median household income: $98,461
Cost of living index: 116.5
Total monthly cost of living: $4,495

Methodology: For this study, GOBankingRates analyzed all 50 states to find the average cost of living among the happiest of the states. First GOBankingRates used the data from WalletHub’s Happiest States in the U.S. to find a ranking of states from the happiest to the least happy based on work environment, community and emotional/physical well-being. For each state, the cost-of-living indexes were sourced from Missouri Economic and Research Information Center’s State Cost of Living Indexes. Using the average expenditure costs for all residents, as sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey, the average expenditure costs were calculated for each state. Using the Zillow Home Value Index, the average single-family home value was found for each state and the 30-year fixed mortgage average was sourced from the Federal Reserve Economic Data; assuming a 10% down payment, the average mortgage was calculated for each state. The average mortgage and average expenditure costs were combined to find the total monthly average cost of living for each state. The total population, household population and median household income were all sourced from the U.S. Census American Community Survey. The happiness rating was scored and weighted at 1.00, the household median income was scored and weighted at 1.00, the average expenditure cost was scored and weighted at 1.00, and the average mortgage cost was scored and weighted at 1.00. All the scores were summed and sorted to rank the states. All data was collected on and is up to date as of April 16, 2024.

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