We know it’s good to be happy, and apparently you are! WalletHub, a personal finance company, has ranked Hawai`i as the happiest state in the union (again) in 2025! Party hardy; we’ve done it again. While we can pontificate (humbly, of course) about how life here is different and talk about ‘ohana and other local virtues, this annual survey does seem to provide some certainty to the fact that, yeah- it is really nice here, as we’ve shared from this survey before.
Wallet Hub happiness surveys in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024 also ranked the Aloha State as the happiest. We fell to #2 (behind Utah) in 2023, and there were no surveys in 2019 and 2021. Relative happiness is now a statistically accepted reality for our state; how nice. It goes beyond just a feeling.
Emotional & Physical Well-Being (#2), Work Environment (#16), and Community & Environment (#13) are the three key categories used to assess the happiness of people living in each of the 50 states.
What also enhances the this report is the fact that Hawai`i ranks as second lowest in depression of any state… makes sense, since apparently most people are pretty happy. That’s not to say we don’t have our challenges here with mental health issues along with housing, food insecurity, cost of living, well-paying jobs, etc., but WalletHub’s annual study signifies that even with all those blemishes and downers, Hawai`i really IS unique…
We enjoy the highest life expectancy of any state and this year’s survey suggests that 72% of Hawai`i adults are “…active and productive on a daily basis”. We have regularly low unemployment rates (though some must work extra jobs to make ends meet) and WalletHub says we have “…the 11th lowest share of adults with financial anxiety”.
So either things are actually better than we might sometimes think, better than some reports we see/hear, or a lot of people were really high when they answered this survey! Again, these results do not suggest that we don’t have room for improvement to help hard-working people who struggle to make a go of it, but choose to stay here and make it work.
Even when they’re struggling, people in Hawai`i’s happiness quotient is really high. Happy people tend to be healthier, more productive, and (obviously) more fun to be around, which amplifies the happy factor. Happy to hear this. Merry Christmas.
Think about it…