DC residents rank 2nd on "well being"

Washington Business Journal - by Jeff Clabaugh Staff Reporter


Among big-city populations, Washington area residents have the second-best feeling of well-being in the nation, according to a Gallup poll released Monday.

The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is based on results from 350,000 respondents who answered more than 40 questions about the current state of their lives. Gallup said questions ranged from how they feel physically and emotionally, to the state of their social and professional lives and their outlook for the future.

Among the nation’s largest cities, Washington ranked No. 2, topped only by San Jose, Calif. Raleigh, N.C., Minneapolis, San Francisco, Boston, Seattle, Virginia Beach, Va., Atlanta and Kansas City, Mo., rounded out the rest of the top ten.

“The index differs from every other measure out there, in both scale and scope,” said Ben Leedle, CEO of http://images.bizjournals.com/email/cwatch/w.gifHealthways Inc., a well-being management company. “It looks beyond mere physical health … to encompass total well-being, all of the various facets of our lives that interweave to make us who we are, healthy or sick, happy or sad, productive or nonproductive.”

Boulder, Colo., was ranked as No. 1 among all cities, regardless of population size. In that overall listing, Washington ranked eighth. When well-being was measured by statewide surveys, Hawaii ranked No. 1.