How are you doing? It's a question we ask and answer all too casually, all the time. But how are we doing? Apparently, here in South Dakota, pretty well.

That is according to the Gallup-Sharecare State of American Well-Being report published just this month,  and included 2.5 million surveys which examined 5 elements of well-being:

  1. Purpose: liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals
  2. Social: having supportive relationships and love in your life
  3. Financial: managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security
  4. Community: liking where you live, feeling safe, and having pride in your community
  5. Physical: having good health and enough energy to get things done daily

Top 5 states with the highest well-being scores:

  1. South Dakota
  2. Vermon
  3. Hawaii
  4. Minnesota
  5. North Dakota

This is especially good news for the top states, because nationally the state of well-being took the largest drop in the ten years they have been measuring it.

South Dakota got the highest score in the purpose category, came in second in the financial area, and third in the community realm. Sadly in the relationships or social column, (ranked 28th) and the physical health area, (ranked 7th) our state was not as satisfied.

One national trend emerged from all the data they crunched and that focused on two key elements:

- social and purpose – declined particularly sharply. In the case of social well-being, fewer Americans agree that their friends and family provide them with positive energy every day and that someone in their life always encourages them to be healthy. As for purpose well-being, fewer agree that they like what they do each day and that there is a leader in their life who makes them feel enthusiastic about the future."

What I took away from this lengthy and complex study was that here in South Dakota we're doing okay.


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