Alaska is the top U.S. state for well-being

If you've been looking for a way to improve your happiness, you might want to consider moving off the U.S. mainland.

Gallup has released its annual well-being index for the U.S., and Alaska tops the list for the first time. Hawaii came in second. West Virginia and Kentucky, meanwhile, take the bottom two spots for the sixth year in a row.

To create its 2014 index, Gallup conducted 176,000 interviews with residents of all 50 states from January to December 2014. Those polled were asked about what Gallup calls the "five essential elements of well-being": purpose, social, financial, community, and physical.

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