Sour Big Apple

Louisiana is the happiest state in America and New York is the unhappiest, University of Warwick research has found. The study by Andrew Oswald, professor of economics, and Stephen Wu, associate professor of economics at Hamilton College in the US, found that the results of a life-satisfaction survey of 1.3 million Americans were closely correlated to another study of objective happiness indicators, such as congestion levels and air quality. Professor Oswald said the research "provides a justification for the use of subjective wellbeing surveys in the design of government policies, and will be of value to future economic and clinical researchers across a variety of fields in science and social science."