According to new information released by Gallup this week, Utah is the second most “thriving” state in America. Gallup offers this explanation of the findings:
Gallup classifies Americans as “thriving,” “struggling,” or “suffering” according to how they rate their lives “at this time” and “about five years from now” on a ladder scale based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale. Those who are thriving rate their current lives a 7 or higher and their lives in five years an 8 or higher. These findings, from surveys conducted with 177,670 U.S. adults from January through June 2012 for the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, mark a halftime report ahead of full-year 2012 data to be released early next year.
The results also tend to correlate with economic factors in residents’ lives:
The states that do best overall in “thriving” are similar to those best positioned for future livability based on a variety of factors encompassing economic, workplace, community, and personal choices. As such, it remains clear that a broad-based approach will likely fare best in terms of improving how residents rate their lives and their level of optimism for the future.
In the context of other findings — for example, Provo’s ranking as the best U.S. city for business — it’s no wonder that residents would describe their state as thriving. But these results, which deal with perception and well-being as well, also suggest that Utah is getting more right than just economics.
