People In Tropical Paradise Say They Aren’t Very Stressed
Not surprisingly, people who live in Hawaii report that they aren’t very stressed:
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hawaii residents remained the least likely in the U.S. to say they felt stressed on any given day in 2012, at 32.1%. West Virginia residents, on average, were the most likely to report feeling stress, at 47.1%.
These state–level data are based on daily surveys conducted from January through December 2012 and encompass more than 350,000 interviews as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Nationwide, 40.6% of Americans reported feeling stressed “yesterday” in 2012, similar to past years.
Gallup has measured daily stress in its tracking survey since 2008. Hawaii has ranked as the state with the lowest percentage of residents reporting stress on the prior day all five years and is the only state to rank in the top five consistently since 2008. West Virginia, Kentucky, and Utah, have each ranked within the top five most stressed states for the past five years. West Virginia ranked as the most stressed state in 2012, Kentucky was the top state for stress in 2008 and 2011, and Utah was the top state for stress in 2009 and 2010.
Frankly, I think we could’ve figured this out without going through the expense of conducting a poll.
In other news Hawaii is the 2nd highest state in the union. The only thing stoners ever get stressed about is munchies.
It must be because they own lots of guns, or something.
Is this going to turn out like the obesity where the honesty in self reporting skews the results?
But I did experience the dichotomy of “stress” when I moved from Honolulu to Seattle. I noticed a minor uptightedness in Seattle but one day I drove across the lake to Microsoft territory. Just on the highway over there you could feel the stress levels rise. I figured Seattle was a nice transition back the the mainland. if I’d moved straight to DC or NY, I’d probably had a panic attack.
I assume the people answering the poll are those who survived the Hawaiian climate’s incredible power to cause irritating inner thigh rashes due to high heat and humidity. I’d be happy too.
@Brett: @Brett:
It stays between 65 and 85 here for better than 85% of the time and the humidity is usually less than 65%.
I think it is the pace of life here moreso than the climate. Things are done on ‘Hawaiian time’ much to the consternation of people who come here from the mainland. The people who tend to be most stressed here seem to be from the places on the mainland that are much more rapidly paced (SoCal, NY, etc). They tend to bring their attitudes and expectations with them and get uptight when people don’t meet them.
This is just anecdotal but …
I’ve noticed in my travels that East Coast people, particularly in the Northeast (the NY, NJ, CT, RI and MA areas) seem to be a lot more stressed and enjoy life a lot less than people on the West Coast. I pretty much chalk it up to fighting the weather 6 to 9 months of the year.
@al-Ameda: I think also fighting the traffic adds to the problem.
I find Chicago pretty laid back, but I lived in Tokyo for over 10 years. Compared to Tokyo, even NYC is laid back.
(Have always thought that certain pockets of productivity occur because either a) the weather is so ghastly there’s nothing else to do, or b) you’re out in the middle of nowhere and there’s nothing else to do aside from shuttle between research lab and home.)
P.S. I think this falls into the “if England had better weather and better food, they wouldn’t have developed an empire” argument.