Happiness Indexes are pretty interesting. They try to reach back beyond sterile, single factor indices (like Gross National Product) and give you a clearer picture of the health or happiness of a place.

So, obviously, I wanted to do one for Washington State.

I took some indicators that I could find data on the county level for across the GNH scale (economics, education, health, violence and democracy) and came up with a Gross Happiness Index of Washington Counties.

Certainly, there is a massive back of the napkin warning here, I’m not an economist or a statistician, but here are the general rankings:

County Overall rank Average rank
San Juan 1 4.20
Whitman 2 6.67
Garfield 3 11.60
Lincoln 4 11.80
Island 5 12.00
Douglas 6 12.80
Jefferson 7 13.00
Walla Walla 8 14.17
Whatcom 9 14.67
Kitsap 10 15.17
Klickitat 11 15.60
Wahkiakum 12 15.80
Ferry 13 16.20
King 14 16.50
Chelan 15 16.67
Snohomish 16 17.33
Thurston 17 18.17
Kittitas 18 19.00
Columbia 19 19.00
Clark 20 19.17
Benton 21 19.83
Skagit 22 19.83
Skamania 23 21.60
Pend Oreille 24 21.60
Adams 25 21.83
Lewis 26 22.17
Okanogan 27 22.33
Grant 28 23.00
Spokane 29 23.33
Franklin 30 23.50
Asotin 31 23.50
Clallam 32 23.67
Mason 33 24.00
Stevens 34 24.83
Pierce 35 27.00
Pacific 36 27.60
Grays Harbor 37 28.33
Cowlitz 38 28.50
Yakima 39 30.17

Digging down into the Thurston County, it is interesting to see what shapes our ranking.

We do pretty well in Health (9th) and Pollution (10th) and average in Economic (17th), Education (18th) and Crime (21st).

But, our worst index is voter turnout. Out of 39 counties, we are 34th in voter turnout. Which, if you think of the symbolism of us being the home of the state capitol (totally crap symbolism) is pretty sad.

I think its also interesting that in terms of our neighborhood, we’re the shining freaking star. Practically all four counties that border Thurston are in the basement of the GHI. Lewis (26th) Mason (33rd), Pierce (35th), and Grays Harbor (37th) all fall well below Thurston County in happiness.

Yeah us! We’re above average!