Baltimore Voted One Of Most Stressed Cities

BALTIMORE, MD —WalletHub.com, a personal finance website, released its list of "2021's Most & Least Stressed Cities in America" on Monday, and Baltimore was ranked No. 4 on the "most stressed" list.

According a release, 182 cities, including 150 of the most populated in the U.S., were evaluated for the list. The methodology included 41 relevant metrics across four key dimensions: work stress, financial stress, family stress and health and safety stress. Within each dimension, different types of stress was assigned a point value.

Baltimore ended up scoring a 55.13, finishing below No. 1 Cleveland (61.55), No. 2 Detroit (56.66) and No. 3 New Orleans (55.52), and just ahead of No. 5 Newark (55.09).

Charm City scored the worst in work stress, finishing No. 6, which included factors like: average weekly work hours, job security, traffic congestion, unemployment rate and underemployment rate.

Baltimore was No. 7 in family stress, which included factors like: separation and divorce rate, share of single parent households, median duration of current marriage and childcare costs.

Meanwhile, Baltimore was No. 19 in financial stress and No. 80 in health and safety stress.

WalletHub pointed out that stress levels have increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a recent study by the American Psychological Association finding that more than six in 10 adults had undesired weight changes since the start of the pandemic. Plus, one in four essential workers had been diagnosed with a mental health disorder.

However, the publication noted that certain kinds of stress can have positive effects on a person's well-being.

According to Psychology Today: "A little bit of stress, known as 'acute stress' can be exciting - it keeps us active and alert."

What are the best ways to reduce stress?

"Exercise proved to be very effective in managing stress and anxiety, so a regular exercise routine could be one of the best ways to combat stress," Johnna Swartz, associate professor at University of California-Davis told WalletHub.com. "Other ways to manage stress include: yoga, mindfulness meditation or finding hobbies outside of work such as baking, art or gardening.

"In addition, seeking out a therapist could help with identifying more personalized strategies to manage stress."

Columbia is the other Maryland city that was evaluated for the stress study, and the Howard County city scored quite well, finishing No. 178 out of 182 cities.