States of Unhappiness

Here's a video showing continental US states' mood through the day as inferred by Twitter (their size adjusted for population, measured by tweets). (The video shows the same 24 hour cycle twice.)

If you're like me, you immediate zeroed in on your state and followed it throughout the days. And if you're really like me, you'd follow Iowa and you'll notice Iowa's always sad. Really sad. So I ran it a couple of more times to find out which other states share Iowa's angst. Here's a list (some might be wrong because the states' altered size make some hard to identify).

Iowa
North Dakota
South Dakota
Montana
New Mexico
Nebraska
Kansas
West Virgina
Mississippi

My first impression is that these are all low population states; Iowa's the highest at number 30. The basic rational is that people like to live near other people. It creates better job opportunities, more interesting things to do, a larger pool of potential friends, etc. And while there's several states which are unhappy nearly all the time many other states aren't (like Maine, which is #41 in population). But a much better of the "people like clumps" theory is population density (unhappy states italicized).

State	Density Rank
West Virginia	29
Vermont	30
Minnesota	31
Mississippi	32
Arizona	33
Arkansas	34
Iowa	35
Oklahoma	36
Colorado	37
Maine	38
Oregon	39
Kansas	40
Utah	41
Nevada	42
Nebraska	43
Idaho	44
New Mexico	45
South Dakota	46
North Dakota	47
Montana	48
Wyoming	49

And many of these states were close to being unhappy all the time but had some moments of tepid joy (i.e. Arkansas and Idaho). Others have a skewed density: Nevada has a handful of major cities and the rest is unpopulated desert. Other factors come into this of course such as climate and state size (smaller states are easier to leave) but I have no doubt the draw of the city plays a major role.

HT: Brian Hollar