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Recent article details03/31/2004Tech Valley Named Least Stressful Region in the Country Between international terrorism and a struggling economy, today's Americans are faced with more stress than ever. In this new study, America's favorite research gurus at Sperling's BestPlaces have identified the most and least stressful U.S. cities in 2003. Which U.S. cities provide an environment that can help make our life more relaxed and enjoyable? Are there certain U.S. cities where residents regularly face particularly stressful conditions? Our "Sperling Stress Index" is comprised of nine different factors that are associated with stress: unemployment rate, divorce rate, commute time, violent and property crime rates, suicide rate, alcohol consumption, self-reported "poor mental health," and number of cloudy days. Here are this year's most and least stressful cities, chosen from the 100 largest metro areas. Top 10 Low-Stress Cities 1.Albany-Schenectady, NY 2.Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle, PA 3.Orange County, CA 4.Nassau-Suffolk, NY 5.Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN-WI 6.Ann Arbor, MI 7.Omaha, NE-IA 8.Norfolk, VA-Virginia Beach, VA-NC 9.Honolulu, HI 10.Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC Top 10 Most Stressful Cities 1.Tacoma, WA 2.Miami, FL 3.New Orleans, LA 4.Las Vegas, NV 5.New York, NY 6.Portland-Vancouver, OR-WA 7.Mobile, AL 8.Stockton-Lodi, CA 9.Detroit, MI 10.Dallas, TX Among the low-stress cities, there appears a common theme of state capitals and institutions of higher learning. "Government and universities provide a solid economic base to smaller cities, lessening the stress caused by economic cycles," reported Sperling. "Most of the top-ten stress cities are grappling with high unemployment," said Bert Sperling, president of Sperling's BestPlaces. "It affects the entire community, whether you have a job or not. Rising unemployment has been tied to increased crime, and declining tax revenues force reductions in social services that affect young and old alike." An interesting footnote to this study was the discovery of a strong correlation between the rates of suicide and divorce. Methodology The Sperling Stress Index is based on the most currently available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (unemployment rate), Census Bureau (divorce rate and commute time), FBI Uniform Crime Reports (crime statistics), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (suicide rate, alcohol consumption, and poor mental health), and the National Climatic Data Center (cloudy days). The data was assigned point values to rank each city with others in each category, while preserving the proportionality. The point values for each city were then summed for all categories. View the article.
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