How do you feel? Let's talk about your mother . . .

A news item caught my eye the other day. Mental Health America, formerly the National Mental Health Association, compared depression levels and suicide rates for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Evidently, the happiest people in the country live in South Dakota (really?) and the most depressed people are in Utah (well . . .).

The survey used four measures in the survey to develop the state rankings:

1. the percentage of the adult population experiencing at least one major depressive episode in the past year
2. the percentage of the adolescent population experiencing at least one major depressive episode in the past year
3. the percentage of adults experiencing serious psychological distress
4. the average number of days in the last 30 days in which the population reported that their mental health was not good.

If you are wondering, the top ten "least depressed" states are:

1. South Dakota
2. Hawaii
3. New Jersey (Oh, c'mon now.)
4. Iowa
5. Maryland (I guess I feel better now)
6. Minnesota
7. Louisiana
8. Illinois
9. North Dakota
10. Texas

The bottom ten "most depressed" states are:

42. Wyoming
43. Ohio
44. Missouri
45. Idaho
46. Oklahoma
47. Nevada
48. Rhode Island
49. Kentucky
50. West Virginia
51. Utah

In my job, I often work on surveys conducted under the aegis of a federal agency. I have seen statistical reports like this. There are a number of other ones to be found here. I am a bit of a geek this way, but I find them interesting.