In a new Gallup poll that rates states in terms of population well-being, New York lands pretty much dead center. But that's a 0.3 "point" raise from last year, so nice work everybody. New York got a 65 on the "Well-Being Index Score," which calculates evaluations of citizen's lives from across the country. Factors include emotional and physical health, work environment, and access to basic things like food and water.

New York is also up 7.1 points from 2008 on our "Life Evaluation Index," which is a "self-evaluation of two items, present life situation and anticipated life situation five years from now." Apparently, we're very optimistic about our future. We scored high on Basic Access (82.8) but pretty low on Work Environment (44.2). Hawaii, of course, took the prize for highest well-being, beating out last year's winner, Utah, though they still win for best Work Environment.

West Virginia came in last place, with the lowest Life Evaluation, Emotional Health and Physical Health scores. And Louisiana only comes in 10th place, but that doesn't factor in all the free beads they're going to get today!