If you’re worried the Brookings Institution has a good tool for deciding where you’ll fit right in:
Our geographic analysis yields many patterns that are consistent with those reported in other kinds of data—and in our earlier work. For example, the best places in terms of optimism for poor minorities are the Southern cluster of states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. The worst places for this same group are California, Washington-state, Oregon, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. The patterns are almost the inverse for poor non-Hispanic whites, meanwhile. The most optimistic states for this group are Maryland, California, Florida, Nevada, Texas, Louisiana, and Georgia. The most desperate states are the Dakotas, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Wisconsin, Missouri, West Virginia, and Kentucky (which correspond, roughly, to the opioid and suicide belts in the heartland).
The best places for worry (i.e., the lowest levels of worry) for minorities are, again, the Southern cluster of states, while the worst are Washington state, Kansas, Utah, New Mexico, Florida, and Massachusetts. Again, non-Hispanic whites have an inverse pattern, with worry the lowest in Arizona, New Mexico, Minnesota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, and Georgia. The worst places for poor white worry are Nevada, Utah, Kentucky, West Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. While some of the classic rural areas again show up, so do some coastal regions with more vibrant economies, as in the case of the latter three states.
I note that unmentioned is Illinois, the Cognitive Dissonance State. We’re thinking of changing the license plates.
The analysis that I think would be even more interesting and revealing would be an analysis by county. I’m confident that you’d find that people were most worried in counties that a) aren’t part of large metropolitan areas and b) aren’t adjacent to state capitols. Also, note the high prevalence of worry among non-whites in the California and the Pacific Northwest.
Even po people happy in Louisiana.