The five most stressed cities in the country are all run by Democrats, according to a new study.
WalletHub used 39 metrics — from the unemployment rate to the suicide rate — to compare more than 180 cities across the U.S., including the nation’s 150 most populous cities, to find out which Americans are the best and least stressed.
According to WalletHub’s findings, Democrat-run blue cities dominate the top of the list for carrying the most stress:
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Detroit, Michigan
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Shreveport, Louisiana
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Fayetteville, North Carolina
- St. Louis, Missouri
- August, Georgia
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Dora Reynolds, who was unemployed at the time this photo was taken, sits on a downtown street on October 24, 2016 in East Liverpool, Ohio. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Each of the top five cities has a Democrat mayor, and only one of the top 10 is led by a Republican.
Cleveland, which has the nation’s second-highest poverty rate among large cities, also struggles with a crime rate that is 5.5 times higher than the state average and 4.3 times higher than the national average.
Democrat Mayor Justin Morris Bibb promised to increase the police force in the city after the mass shooting earlier this month. However, City Council member Michael Polensek said this week at a public meeting that Cleveland is down 313 officers from where it was in 2020, lamenting the state of his city and declaring, “No I will live like this.”
Detroit ranks No. 2 in large part due to crime, with recent statistics showing that city dwellers are about four times more likely to be victims of violent crime than Americans who live elsewhere.
Baltimore, Birmingham and Philadelphia also experienced high crime and homicide rates above the national average under major Democrats.
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A man walks past the remains of the Packard Motor Car Company, which ceased production in the late 1950s, on Nov. 19, 2008 in Detroit, Michigan. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The WalletHub study comes in the wake of the COVID pandemic and historically high inflation — which remains high for consumer staples like groceries — and amid rate hikes in many cities. Inflation in particular has become a major source of stress, according to experts.
“Without a doubt, the top financial stressor in 2023 will be inflation,” Eric Weiser, chair of the Department of Psychology at Curry College, told WalletHub. “Recent polls show that the majority of Americans believe that the country’s economy is not doing well, and there is little question that inflation is the main basis for this view.”
Weiser noted that the cost of “almost everything,” especially in major US cities, is “shocking,” explaining that even if people spend money responsibly, they still need to buy groceries and gas. .
“Those are the sources of most pain,” he said. “Consumers are hurting at the supermarket and at the gas pump, and it doesn’t look like this situation will be resolved anytime soon.”
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Violent crime has risen in many US cities in recent years, becoming a major source of stress. (iStock)
Recent figures from the Department of Labor show that inflation has gradually declined from its peak last summer. However, a staggering 83% of Americans feel stressed about inflation, and 75% feel stressed about violence and crime, according to a recent survey from the American Psychological Association. .
To form its rankings, WalletHub grades each metric on a 100-point scale, weighing them differently based on the importance of stress. The study then determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score, only considering each city as appropriate while excluding its metro area.
The study calculated an overall score for its ranking by categorizing its measures under four broad categories: job stress, including measures such as job security and average hours of commuting; financial stress, including measures such as median credit scores and foreclosure rates; family stress, including standards such as divorce fees and child care costs; and stress on health and safety, which includes metrics such as mental health statistics and crime rate figures.
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Washington, DC, is ranked as the most stressful place in the country to work. Cleveland tops the list for financial stress. Fresno, California, ranks high for family stress. And WalletHub found Detroit highlighted the most stress due to health and safety issues.
