The new Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index is out. The index was "developed to provide the official measure for health and well-being. It's the voice of Americans and the most ambitious effort ever undertaken to measure what people believe constitutes a good life."
Milwaukee landed at No. 78 overall, while Boulder, Colo.; Holland-Grand Haven, Mich.; Honolulu; Provo-Orem, Utah and Santa Rosa-Petaluma, Calif., placed 1-5. Madison landed at 29 and Chicago came in at 77.
USAToday.com has an easy to read table with all the results.
Among the nation's 52 largest metropolitan areas that Gallup surveyed, San Jose, Calif., had the highest well-being in the nation followed closely by Washington, D.C.
Rounding out the top five for large metros are Raleigh, N.C., Minneapolis and San Francisco.
Las Vegas ranked last in 2009 in overall well-being among all large cities, defined as those with a population size of 1 million or greater, with Providence, R.I.; Jackson, Fla.; Tampa, Fla.; Louisville, Ky.; and Cleveland just ahead.
When looking at all cities, Huntington-Ashland, W.Va.-Ky.-Ohio (a metropolitan area that includes five counties in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio) came in dead last at No. 162.
Results are based on telephone interviews with more than 353,000 American adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Jan. 2- Dec. 29, 2009.
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
