No source of this "objective" information was given. I googled the headline and found this page linked.
I notice that this sentence is omitted from Hawaii's #1 description:
"Hawaii's top-ranked quality of life for a second straight year makes it easy to forget about the state's dismal overall ranking."
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100807421/page/11
And this part was not showing in the Vermont #2 description:
2013 Quality of Life Rank (Points): #2 (265)
2013 Overall Rank: #31
2012 Quality of Life Rank: #3