What is up with the politicians in Kentucky and West Virginia?Don't they pay attention to Gallup polls?

For the sixth straight year, respondents to a 2014 Gallup pollabout overall well-being found folks expressing the least degree ofwell-being in West Virginia, with Bluegrass State residents not farbehind in 49th place. There oughta be a law against feelin' low inthose states.

Meantime, the 49th state — Alaska — topped Gallup's list this year for thefirst time since the poll was launched by Gallup and its partner,Healthways, in 2008.

[Related: 10 healthiest states in America (2014)]

Perhaps ironically, the 50th state, Hawaii, placed second inoverall well-being, despite have such advantages over The LastFrontier as lots of sun, beautiful beaches, pineapples, grassskirts, a popular word that means hello and goodbye, and noshortage of ukuleles.

The big shocker was North Dakota, a state that regularly performs well in surveys aboutthe relative happiness, health, employment prospects and wealth of the folks there. Whereas in 2013 it placed No. 1, this year ittumbled to 23rd place. “North Dakota's drop was mostly attributableto a drop in its residents' overall life evaluation, coupled withworsened health-related behaviors such as higher smoking rates,reduced exercise and less healthy eating compared with 2013,”Gallup informed us.

Hawaii & Colorado have been in the Top 10 since2008

In general, as Gallup has found in the past, western states tendto dominate the highest ranking states, while states in the southpopulate the bottom 10, with a few Rust Belt exceptions. Hawaii andColorado have been in the Top 10 since 2008; the only New Englandstate to appear in the Top 10 more than once was Vermont,which made the grade three times.

The perennial cellar dwellers include Arkansas, Ohio,Mississippi, West Virginia and Kentucky. Apparently championshipcollege sports teams just aren't enough to buoy peoples' spiritsout of their state-induced doldrums.

Now, take a look at the list of states with the highest andlowest rankings for well being.

Now, without further ado, the top 10 states for wellbeing:

1. Alaska

2. Hawaii

3. South Dakota

4. Wyoming

5. Montana

6. Colorado

7. Nebraska

8. Utah

9. New Mexico

10. Texas

And the bottom 10 states for well-being:

50. West Virginia

49. Kentucky

48. Indiana

47. Ohio

46. Mississippi

45. Alabama

44. Tennessee

43. Arkansas

42. Michigan

41. Missouri