Feb 16 2010
Individuals wanting to increase their personal well-being and enjoy the highest quality of life in America might want to consider relocating to Boulder, Colo. or the state of Hawaii.
“Specifically, we need policies, programs and solutions, implemented at a total population scale, that work to keep healthy people healthy, reduce or eliminate lifestyle risk and optimize care for people with existing disease or conditions.”
That’s the conclusion of two groundbreaking reports published today by Gallup, the world’s best known and most respected behavioral science authority, and Healthways (NASDAQ: HWAY), the largest well-being management company in the nation.
The residents of Boulder and Hawaii had the highest well-being of any city or state in the U.S in 2009, according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being IndexTM (WBI), which has been randomly polling 1,000 Americans per day, 350 days per year for the past 25 months.
The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index City and State Reports released today are based on more than 350,000 surveys completed in 2009. More than 725,000 surveys have been collected since polling began in January 2008, making the WBI the largest database of behavioral economics and information concerning holistic well-being in existence.
The 42 core questions that make up the WBI survey were scientifically designed by some of the world’s leading experts in economics, psychology and health to thoroughly measure how respondents are faring in all aspects of their lives; physically, emotionally, socially and professionally, as well as to take a daily pulse of how Americans rate the overall quality of their current life and outlook for the future.
While these rankings are not intended to be a competition – they are not about winners and losers – they do provide government policy-makers, community leaders, media agencies, employers, health plans and healthcare providers with an unprecedented level of detailed information about where communities are doing well, where they are struggling and where to best target policies and investments to assist residents to maximize their well-being.
Gallup and Healthways published state and congressional district rankings based on WBI data for the 2008 measurement year. This is the first time city rankings have been announced.