You may have already heard about new research published in the journal Science on December 17, 2009, which ranked life-satisfaction for residents of the 50 American states plus the District of Columbia. Among the happiest states, as they have been dubbed, were Louisiana, Hawaii, Florida, and Tennessee. New York ranked, well, a bit lower. The residents with the lowest levels of life-satisfaction included those in New Jersey, Connecticut, and finally New York.

The researchers, Andrew Oswald, Ph.D., from the University of Warwick in the U.K. and Stephen Wu, Ph.D., from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, compared self-reports of life-satisfaction with objective quality-of-life factors such as temperature, sunshine, taxes, crowding, and cost-of-living. They found that these environmental factors matched-up with the reported satisfaction of those surveyed. This suggests that the happiness of New Yorkers may be negatively affected by congestion in and around New York City, longer commute times, challenging weather patterns throughout the state, expensive home prices, and comparatively high state and local taxes.