Between work, family issues, money, and life's other usual trials and tribulations, trying to tamp down on stress can seem a fruitless task. There may be some areas of the country, however, where you can surround yourself with a calmer, more carefree populace. WalletHub examined the 182 largest US cities, factoring in more than three dozen metrics in four main categories: work stress, including job security and satisfaction, the unemployment rate, and commute times; financial stress (think median household incomes, poverty and bankruptcy rates, and debt levels); family stress, which looks at separation and divorce rates, the cost of child care, and the like; and health and safety stress (ie, the share of adults in fair or poor health, the suicide rate, and the community well-being index). Cleveland is our nation's most-stressed city, while South Burlington, Vermont, is where you should go to chill out. Here, the top and bottom 10 cities:
Most Stressed
- Cleveland (No. 1 in "Financial Stress" category)
- Detroit (No. 1 in "Health & Safety Stress" category)
- Baltimore
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Philadelphia
- Shreveport, Louisiana
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Fayetteville, North Carolina
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Augusta, Georgia
Least Stressed - Nashua, New Hampshire
- Rapid City, South Dakota
- Bismarck, North Dakota
- Burlington, Vermont
- Lincoln, Nebraska
- Fargo, North Dakota
- Overland Park, Kansas
- Sioux Falls, South Dakota
- Fremont, California (last in "Health & Safety Stress" category)
- South Burlington, Vermont (last in "Financial Stress," "Family Stress" categories)
See how other cities fared
here. (Check out
America's happiest cities.)