Misery Loves Company

Gallup has compiled its annual list of America's Most Miserable Cities, and surprise, the overwhelming majority are in red states. 

To determine the well-being of Americans, Gallup-Healthways surveyed hundreds of thousands of Americans in 189 metropolitan areas in the U.S. in 2012 and 2013. The survey recorded the physical and emotional health of the residents, as well as financial, employment, and social indicators, among others. The resulting Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index allows for comparisons between places and over time.

In America’s most miserable cities, residents were less likely to be in good physical health and far more likely to report unhealthy behaviors. Residents in all of the nation’s 10 most miserable areas were more likely to smoke than the average American. In the second most miserable area, Charleston, West Virginia, slightly over 35% of people said they smoked — the worst rate in the nation.

While income wasn’t a direct measure in the index, differences in income were quite prominent between America’s most content and miserable areas. In each of the 10 cities with the lowest well-being scores, incomes were lower than the typical American household. In three of these metro areas -- including the worst-off metro area, the so-called Tri-State region of Huntington-Ashland, comprising parts of West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio -- median household income was less than $40,000 in 2012.

The list:

10. Evansville, Ind.
9. Mobile, Ala.
8. Shreveport-Bossier City, La.
7. Columbus, Ga.
6. Beaumont-Port Arthur, Tex.
5. Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC
4. Spartanburg, SC
3. Redding, Ca.
2. Charleston, WV

and America's Most Miserable City is:

1)  Huntington-Ashland, WV

Having grown up in #5 up there, I'm not surprised to see it on the list.  Hickory was one of many textile and manufacturing towns in the Carolinas to get utterly screwed by NAFTA, and when the city tried to put itself back together again in the 90's with fiber optic cable plants, the dot com bust came along and wiped that out too, it's one of the major reasons I moved away.

Roughly 51% of residents in the Hickory region of North Carolina were considered to be struggling, based on self-evaluations of their current lives and futures, compared to just 44% of Americans. Residents were less optimistic about their futures than respondents in all but seven other cities. About 19% said they did not have enough energy to keep pace with their daily lives within the previous 24 hours, which was close to last nationwide. Additionally, only 77.4% said they had not been sad within the past 24 hours, among the lowest rates in the nation. Possibly adding to the unhappiness of residents was the area’s economy. The median household income was just $37,364 in 2012, among the lowest in the country.

So yeah, northern Kentucky was a step up from where I came from, one of the poorest metro areas in the country.  The area is also most of NC 10th Congressional District and The Odious Patrick McHenry, one of the reddest districts in the entire country (and 88% white.) Our most famous local hero is NASCAR driver Dale Jarrett for crying out loud.

I'm glad I moved out when I did, I've lived in several places since, and seen a lot of things. that just made me shake my head when I think about how right-wing back home was and still is.