Maine Is Officially the Unhappiest State in New England, According to New Report

Maine is a pretty awesome place to live.

It’s amazingly beautiful, remarkably clean, packed with incredible food, loaded with things to do, and just remote enough to feel like an escape from the rest of the world.

WalletHub, a personal finance website, recently published its annual report on the happiest states in America. Our great state was nowhere near the top. In fact, it wasn’t just in the bottom half, it was the lowest-ranked state in New England. So, basically, Maine is the unhappiest state in the entire region. That’s a stunner. I mean, we’ve all been to Connecticut. How on Earth did they finish ahead of us?

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How Unhappy is Maine?

Maine finished in 34rd place, directly ahead of Texas and just below Indiana. The rankings were based on three major categories: Emotional and Physical Well-Being, Work Environment, and Community and Environment. These were further broken down into 30 subcategories, making the analysis impressively detailed. You can read about the methodology .here

Maine actually scored very highly in the Work Environment category, finishing 10th overall. This category includes employment opportunities, job security, and salary growth. It's encouraging to see this score, considering how poorly we did elsewhere. Who knows how far we would’ve fallen without it?

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Our next-best showing (which, again, is not terrible) was in Community & Environment, where Maine landed in 20th place. This is a tad surprising, considering it includes weather, which isn't exactly stellar here. But, hey, I'm not complaining.

So, where did Maine really get spanked?

That would be Emotional & Physical Well-Being, where Maine placed a dreadful 42nd.

That’s brutal.

It’s probably not ideal to rank that low in such an important category. Lacking in both physical and emotional well-being is basically a serious cry for help.

So, being 34th is the worst in New England. But, how much worse? Let's take a look at the rankings.

What are the Happiest States in New England?

7. Connecticut (I don't believe this)
10. New Hampshire
13. Massachusetts
22. Vermont
29. Rhode Island

Overall, it's a bad look for Maine. Nobody wants to be the worst of their peers, and that’s exactly what Maine is to New England in this report.

READ MORE: The Hottest Restaurants in Portland, Maine, Everyone’s Talking About

As for the happiest state? That title goes to Hawaii. Shocked, right?

And the unhappiest? Congratulations to West Virginia.

As a West Virginia University alum, I can confirm it’s pretty miserable down there when the Mountaineer football team is struggling. But, we are 3-0, baby!

You can find the full rankings here.

And hey, cheer up, folks. It’s just a report. There’s simply no way we’re more miserable than the people from Connecticut.