Happiest place? Survey says … Utah!

Move over, Disneyland. Your claim as "the happiest place on earth" is being challenged by a new Gallup "happiness" poll that ranks Utah as No. 1 for well-being among the 50 states.

Not bad for a state recognized in 2001 as the state with the highest rate of antidepressant use in the United States.

Maybe that's what's helping.

Add to that a dose of Utahns who made grand showings at Winter and Summer Olympic Games, an "American Idol" runner-up, a "So You Think You Can Dance?" champion, "The Greatest Snow on Earth" and "Life Elevated" and the power of positive thinking becomes evident.

The Utah Jazz have won 12 games in a row and are division leaders in the National Basketball Association.

With unemployment at 4.6 percent, Utah's rate ranks among the lowest five in the nation, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And we'll always get to claim the Osmonds.

With a combined total score of 69.2 in the poll, Utah comes in a full point ahead of runner-up Hawaii.

Wyoming and Colorado, two neighboring states, were third and fourth, respectively.

Where did California rank? Ninth.

West Virginia finished in last place, with Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Arkansas also ranking in the bottom five.

The new survey was conducted by Gallup, in conjunction with Healthways and America's Health Insurance Plans. Each person surveyed could get a score of up to 100.

Arthur C. Brooks of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington, D.C., has extensively studied happiness and the reasons for it.

In a forum address last month at Brigham Young University, he said statistics show Utahns are among the happiest people in the nation.

Not surprisingly, "The most charitable state is Utah," which gives twice as much as the second-place state does, Brooks, a Roman Catholic, noted in that address.

"People who give get happier as a result … happiness is the secret to success … you can be a happier person by giving."

Jan Shipps, professor emeritus of history and religious studies at Indiana University-Purdue University and an expert on Utah's dominant religion, said of the survey results, "You don't have people smoking or drinking so much in Utah. That makes a difference in health and well-being."

She believes members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah who give 10 percent tithing, as well as fast offering donations, are certainly a factor in the survey results, though not as much as the Mormons' healthy lifestyle.

The Western states also dominated the study with nine of them in the top 12. The only one not in the top 20 was Nevada at 38th place.