https://www.macon.com/living/article282798318.html
Oddly enough, the "happiness index" doesn't even bother to survey actual humans about their comparative levels of happiness.
The authors just take a bunch of proxy scores like rates of people quitting jobs, PTO, and whatnot, and rank states based on their preferences.
But looking at the results, I can't help but notice that the top ten "happiest" states are places like Alaska and North Dakota, where job growth and diversity of employment opportunities are pretty low; and all the "least happy" states are high growth, wealthy states with lots of big cities.
How much more likely are people to quit their jobs when they have a ton of other options than people who have few alternatives?
In the end, if seems like this would have been more valid if they just polled people and asked how they feel.