Kansas ranks No. 6 in national survey comparing states where happiness comes cheapest
It turns out money can buy happiness.
And how much it costs depends in part on where you’re living, according to a recent national survey.
Financial advice magazine Moneyzine surveyed 1,200 people across the United States from 15 different professions about what income they would need to be satisfied.
The survey found that Kansas is one of the top states in the country where happiness comes cheapest.
The survey placed Kansas sixth in the rankings after finding that the average annual salary people in the Sunflower State said they needed to be happy was $61,667, according to the responses. That’s still a lot more than the state’s median salary of $41,870, as reported by Moneyzine.
Among people who took the survey across the country, the average salary that people said would make them happy was $96,303.
The median income in the United States is around $31,000, meaning most people earn 1/3 of what would make them happy, according to Moneyzine. The study reported that average American requires 150% of their current income to be happy.
States that finished ahead of Kansas in the rankings include New Hampshire, Delaware, Vermont, Mississippi and Indiana.
Of these six states, only New Hampshire has a median salary higher than what residents need to be happy. There, the median salary is $47,923 and the average salary needed to be happy is $42,000.
Missouri ranked 12th on the list, with the average salary needed to be happy being reported as $70,385 by Moneyzine. The median salary in the state is $60,159, according to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center.
