Richard Florida looks at Gallup’s happy state data and tries to draw connections:
The gist:
…happy states are also apparently those greater concentrations bohemians (.43), immigrants (.36 ), and gays (.32), as well as states with higher levels of high-tech industry (.22) or those with more innovative potential.
Florida offers this caveat: "This is a first cut analysis and it’s dealing only with correlation or association and not causation, but the relationships are nonetheless interesting."