Boulder aces Wellbeing Index, Fort Collins-Loveland close behind

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Fort Collins-Loveland metro area earned the
third-highest score in the United States on the 2010 Healthways
Wellbeing Index, according to the Gallup polling organization.

The area’s overall score of 72.1 is an average of six categories that
include life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical
health, healthy behaviors and access to basic necessities. It ranked
just behind Lincoln, Neb., with a score of 72.8 and Boulder, with the
highest overall ranking in the nation at 73.7.

Lincoln was also the metro area where residents were close to unanimous –
96.7 percent – in saying that they are satisfied with where they live,
the Index research showed. Not coincidentally, Lincoln was the metro
area with the lowest unemployment rate in the country in January 2010,
at 4.1 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Fort Collins-Loveland ranked second with 96.1 percent satisfied
residents – with 69.5 percent saying it’s getting better all the time –
while Boulder had 93.7 percent rate of satisfaction.

Greeley’s 64.1 overall wellbeing score was slightly lower than the
national average of 66.8. More than half of Greeley residents surveyed
were optimistic that the area was becoming a better place to live,
higher than the national average of 54.9 percent. Denver-Aurora came in
with an Index ranking of 68.1, with 60.8 percent optimists.

The tri-state area of Huntington-Ashland, W.Va.-Ky.-Ohio, ranked last in
overall wellbeing with an index of 58.1; only 77.5 percent of its
residents reported being satisfied living there. However, 43.5 percent
of residents had some optimism that things were getting better; only 31
percent of those living in Binghamton, N.Y., could say the same.

Results are based on telephone interviews conducted between Jan. 2 and
Dec. 29, 2010, with a random sampling of 245,817 adults ages 18 and
older, living in 188 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in all 50 U.S.
states and the District of Columbia.

The complete Gallup-Healthways Wellbeing Index, for 2008-2010, can be found at http://www.gallup.com/poll/wellbeing.aspx.

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