For the second year in a row, Detroit, Michigan, was named the most stressed city in America.
In an annual report, compiled by Wallethub, the Motor City was determined as the worst when it came to work, family and finances.
Detroit had the worst credit scores, the highest poverty rate and the lowest percentage of adults getting adequate sleep each night.
The bottom five cities all fell in the eastern half of the US: Cleveland, Ohio; Newark, New Jersey; Baltimore, Maryland; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, Fremont, California – a city that lies about halfway between San Francisco and San Jose – was once again crowned the least stressed city in the country.
It was followed by cities that mostly fell in Middle America: Bismarck, North Dakota; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Overland Park, Kansas – as well as Irvine, California, on the West Coast.
To reach its findings, WalletHub compared 182 cities across four dimensions: work-related stress, money-related stress, family-related stress, and health- and safety-related stress.
Several categories were looked at including average hours worked each year, poverty rates, affordable housing, divorce rates and average hours slept each night.
After assessing each city, the researchers provided grades out of 100, with the least amount of points indicating a better score.
Fremont scored 29.19 out of 100 while Detroit earned 62.72 out of 100.
WORK-RELATED STRESS
Residents of Anchorage, Alaska, were found to work the most average hours per week, while those in Burlington, Vermont, work the fewest
Anchorage, Alaska, came in first as the city with the highest amount of working hours every week.
Researchers have found that working long hours increases the risk of smoking, drinking and weight gain.
And a French study, published last month, found the regularly working 10 hours or more a day raises the risk of stroke by almost 30 percent.
Meanwhile, east coast cities – aside from Missoula, Montana – had the lowest average of weekly work hours.
Interestingly, Bismarck, North Dakota – which was the second-least stressed city – was named the city with the least job security.
Reno, Nevada – which ranked 99 out 182 – came out on top as the city with the highest job security.
MONEY-RELATED STRESS
Detroit came first in both the lowest median credit score the highest poverty rate, the latter of which was tied with Cleveland
Detroit and Cleveland, the top two ‘most stressed cities’, tied for first when it came to the highest poverty rates.
According to a 2018 report from the US Census Bureau, Detroit’ poverty rate in 2017 was 37.9 percent while Cleveland came in 35.2 percent.
Fremont, the ‘least stressed city’ came in second for the lowest poverty rate while Pearl City, Hawaii was first.
US census data showed that just 4.9 percent of persons in Fremont live in poverty, with the percentage dropping to 4.6 in Pearl City.
Detroit was also found to be the city with lowest median credit score while Fremont was named the city with the highest median credit score.
FAMILY-RELATED STRESS
Boston, Massachusetts had the least affordable housing while Cedar Rapids, Iowa, had the least – a 77 percent difference between the two
California cities most dominated the list of cities with the least affordable housing but, in a somewhat surprising twist, Boston, Massachusetts, came in first.
Meanwhile cities in mainly Middle America had the most affordable housing with Cedar Rapids – rankled 174 out of 182 – taking the top spot.
According to real estate website Zillow, the median home price in Boston is nearly $600,000 – with home prices rising more than three percent in the last year.
Zillow named the median home price in Cedar Rapids to be about $134,000 – a 77 percent difference from Boston.
Divorce rates also added to family stress were divorce rates. Cleveland was ranked as the city with the highest divorce rate while Fremont came in last, along with a number of other California cities – aside from Pearl City, Hawaii.
HEALTH- AND SAFETY-RELATED STRESS
Memphis, Tennessee, was named the city with the highest crime rate and Port St Lucie, Florida had the lowest crime rate
In the ranking, Memphis, Tennessee, was named the city with the highest crime rate while Port St Lucie, Florida was came in as first in the city with the lowest.
According to NeighborhoodScout, the crime rate in Port St Lucie was 12.21 per 1,000 resident in 2017 and the crime rate in Memphis was 83.56.
This means that the chance of becoming the victim of either a violent or property crime in the Home of the Blues is one in 12.
Detroit once again came in first, this time for the lowest average hours of sleep every night while Overland Park, the fourth-least stressed city, had the highest average hours of sleep.
It is well known that those who get less than the recommended eight hours of sleep each night have higher levels of stress.
This can the risk of – or worsen – diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, asthma and arthritis.