Health & Fitness
Clevelanders Are Really Stressed Out: Study
Northeast Ohio residents are the second most stressed-out populace in the United States, according to a new study.
CLEVELAND — Maybe it's the unpredictable weather that swings from humid swamp conditions to frigid downpour in the span of an afternoon. Maybe it's our historically brutal winters, our ineptness at sports, our never-ending stretch of construction. Whatever it is...Northeast Ohioans are stressed out.
A new study ranks Cleveland as the second-most stressed out metropolis in the United States. But don't worry, stress is only a leading cause of health concerns...yet another thing for Northeast Ohioans to worry about.
Cleveland was ranked as the most financially stressed city in the nation, which accounts for its high overall ranking. Cleveland also ranked 11th in family stress, 15th in health and safety stress and 21st in workplace stress. Only Detroit was ranked above Cleveland in overall stress.
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The top 10 most stressed cities were:
- Detroit, Michigan
- Cleveland, Ohio
- Newark, New Jersey
- Baltimore, Maryland
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- St. Louis, Missouri
- Cincinnati, Ohio
- Birmingham, Alabama
- Wilmington, Delaware
- Shreveport, Louisiana
Doing a deeper dive into the key metrics we can see why Cleveland did so poorly on the rankings. Cleveland had the highest poverty and divorce rates among examined cities. Here's a look at the city's rankings in some areas:
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- 35th – Traffic Congestion
- 1st – Poverty Rate
- 1st – Divorce Rate
- 49th – % of Adults in Fair/Poor Health
- 32nd – Job Security
- 12th – % of Adults with Inadequate Sleep
The study, created and conducted by WalletHub, a personal finance website, looked at four main factors to determine stress levels: work stress, financial stress, family stress and health and safety stress. The company compared 180 cities using 39 metrics to rank each municipality.
Ohio's other major cities didn't fare much better than Cleveland in WalletHub's study. Cincinnati was ranked as the 7th most stressed out city, Toledo ranked 11th and Akron ranked 13th.
On the bright side, at least the Cleveland Browns look good.
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