South Dakota Ranks Low in Overall Wellness

After dealing with a pandemic and the aftermath that comes with it over the past couple of years, we're focused more and more on wellness than ever before.

In fact, a recently released study projects that the wellness industry in the United States will be worth $7 trillion in the next three years.

But that same study shows that South Dakota is lagging behind much of the country when it comes to taking care of ourselves.

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South Dakota Ranks Low in Overall Wellness

The Mount Rushmore State is in the bottom 20 states (32nd overall) on Life Extension's list of the 'Best and Worst States for Wellness' in 2022.

States were graded on three main categories: physical and mental health; access to parks and nature; and integrative health practices, using data from the Centers for Disease Control's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and Google Trends.

South Dakota's worst showing was in the 'vitamins' category, where the state was the second worst in the nation.

But we did exceptionally well in three other categories, which makes the 19th worst overall ranking a bit suspect.

The state was second-best in 'mental health', and third-best in both 'physical health' and 'sleep'.

South Dakota wasn't the only state in the upper midwest to rank poorly in wellness. Neighboring states Iowa, North Dakota, and Nebraska all landed in the bottom ten.