A new study, which ranked various US states on how "happy" they seem, has revealed the Southern states, complete with their hospitality and sunshine, as the "happiest states", while rivals New York and California, the coastal areas, hit rock bottom on the list.

The happiest states, which included the District of Columbia, were ranked on based on measures such as "sunshine, congestion and housing affordability". It was then revealed that out of the top 10 happiest states, 6 were in the South.

"We have been asked a lot whether we expected that states like New York and California would do so badly in the happiness ranking. Many people think these states would be marvelous places to live in. The problem is that if too many individuals think that way, they move into those states, and the resulting congestion and house prices make it a non-fulfilling prophecy", said researcher Andrew Oswald of the University of Warwick.

Top of the list was Louisiana, closely followed by Hawaii, Florida, Tennessee and Arizona, all among the top 5, and New York ranked the lowest at 51 with California only slightly better at 46.

Details of the study have been published in Science.