They’ve Got the Winter Blues: Here’s the Most Melancholy U.S. States

It’s early in the year, and the holiday season is now safely behind us. Though that fact might elicit sighs of relief — especially after the hustle and bustle of crowded planes and awkward conversations with politically opposed family members — the chaos has been replaced, for many, by a gloomy mid-winter sadness. 

This time of year is inherently weird: It’s not yet spring, but we’re no longer distracted by revelry and gift-giving. And there’s a lot less sun, which can be a real downer; after all, sunshine boosts one’s mood because it provides us with vitamin D, absorbing which can help keep us in good spirits. As a result, the dead space before spring gives even the mildest of winter blues lots of time to bloom into something more severe. We’re talking about seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, which can bring you down when you’re absorbing less vitamin D in these bummer-y months. 

But there’s some good news — including the fact that the U.S. is vast. What does geography have to do with depression, you ask? Well, certain states suffer a classic case of winter melancholy way more than others. That’s why Forbes assembled a list of the U.S. states most likely to be affected by seasonal sadness. They used metrics like percentage of sunshine, average number of daylight hours, and annual rates of depression and anxiety to determine the states most and least affected by wintry sadness.

Some of the rankings are fairly obvious: Hawaii is least affected by the winter blues (shocker). Similarly, you might be able to guess the most affected state (hint, it’s the Last Frontier, otherwise known as the state that gets the fewest daylight hours during winter months). 

But otherwise, the list has a lot of surprises: For instance, Colorado turns out to be a fairly winter-positive state; though it doesn’t have the most daylight hours, it gets a decent amount of sunlight. Oregon isn’t the snowiest, coldest state, but its occupants do suffer from higher rates of winter blues, thanks to the low amounts of daylight and sunshine. 

If you’re thinking of whisking your family away on a quick road trip this month, keep this list in mind. That way, when you’re deciding between visiting cousins in Tampa or old college friends in Seattle, you can make an informed call based on which spot is most likely to cheer you up. 

States Most Impacted By Winter Blues