Most and Least Stressed Cities in America

A new survey from WalletHub shows which cities are the most stressed and why. Tampa and St. Pete aren’t the most stressed cities around… but they are not in the top 10 of the least stressed cities. The survey looks at factors like housing, work/life balance, family problems, divorce rate, crime and much more when ranking the cities. Find out more about what cities have residents that are just giant, walking balls of stress.

The benefits of stress

Stress is inevitable. Everyone experiences some type and level of it normally, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made the past few years much more stressful than usual. Now that most people are vaccinated and cases are on the decline, though, plenty of new stressors have taken the place of the pandemic. Around 87% of Americans currently feel stressed about inflation, and 80% feel stressed about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to a recent survey from the American Psychological Association.

Stress is not always a bad thing, though. Certain kinds of stress can have positive effects on a person’s well-being, at least in the right doses. According to Psychology Today, “A little bit of stress, known as ‘acute stress,’ can be exciting—it keeps us active and alert.” When stress reaches an unmanageable level, however, it turns “chronic.” That’s when we become vulnerable to its damaging effects such as health problems and loss of productivity. By one estimate, workplace-related stress alone costs society more than $300 billion per year.

The most and the least stressed cities

To determine the cities where Americans cope best, WalletHub compared more than 180 cities across 40 key metrics.

According to WalletHub, the most stressed city in America is Cleveland, Ohio. They rank highest in terms of financial, family, and health and safety stress. Here are the top 10 most stressed cities:

1. Cleveland, OH
2. Detroit, MI
3. Gulfport, MS
4. Baltimore, MD
5. Philadelphia, PA
6. Memphis, TN
7. New Orleans, LA
8. Birmingham, AL
9. St. Louis, MO
10. Toledo, OH

In the rankings, Tampa is the 100th most stressed city in America. St. Pete is even less stressed, coming in at 131.

Here are some of the other main findings from the survey:

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