New Report Measures the Well-Being of the Nation’s Most Populous Communities

News Release from Gallup-Healthways, April 6, 2015

A new report from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index ranks the 100 largest communities in the United States by their comparative well-being. North-Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, Florida, has the nation’s highest well-being, followed by Urban Honolulu, Hawaii; Raleigh, North Carolina; Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, California; and El Paso, Texas. El Paso also leads the nation in purpose and physical well-being.

LINK: Hawaii Data Summary

Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pennsylvania, has the lowest overall well-being in the country, as well as the lowest purpose and social well-being. The four communities rounding out the bottom five in terms of overall well-being are Toledo, Ohio; Knoxville, Tennessee; Dayton, Ohio; and Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, Indiana. The state of Ohio has five communities among the ten ranked for lowest overall well-being.

“State of American Well-Being: 2014 Community Well-Being Rankings” examines the comparative well-being of the largest 100 communities in the United States. You can read more about the rankings here and download all the reports here.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index uses a holistic definition of well-being and self-reported data from individuals across the globe to create a unique view of societies’ progress on the elements that matter most to well-being: purpose, social, financial, community and physical. It is the most proven, mature and comprehensive measure of well-being in populations. Previous Gallup and Healthways research shows that high well-being closely relates to key health outcomes such as lower rates of healthcare utilization, lower workplace absenteeism and better workplace performance, change in obesity status and new onset disease burden.

To discover where other communities — including yours — fall within the rankings, download a copy of the report today. You can also subscribe to content from the Well-Being Index; by subscribing, we’ll let you know when we release new reports and insights from the Well-Being Index.

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