Hawai'i ranks second in the nation in a well-being index drawn from surveys measuring how people are doing physically, emotionally, socially and economically.

Only Utah had a better score in the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which is designed to be a quality-of-life barometer.

The index is based on data from 1,000 surveys per day and is a composite score on six areas that include life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, healthy behavior, work environment and basic access, a measure of availability of food, shelter and healthcare.

Hawai'i ranked first in life evaluation (an evaluation of one's present situation and anticipated situation in five years) and in emotional health.

It came in ninth in the basic access measure, while it ranked fourth and third respectively in healthy behavior and physical health.

Offsetting these good showings was a last-place ranking in work quality, which is based on questions attempting to gauge how satisfied people are with their jobs.

The two worst states in the ranking were Kentucky at 49 and West Virginia at 50.

The ranking and other information about the index can be found at www.well-beingindex.com.