Forbes Magazine is back with another Top 10 ranking for the Detroit metropolitan area. This time we come in tenth among the most stressed-out cities[1] in the United States. The stress index is comprised of six measures/circumstances that are closely correlated with inducing stress or that result from stress:
- Unemployment in June 2010
- Long Commute Times (% spending 60+ minutes – 2008)
- Long Working Hours (avg. weekly hours spent working – 2008)
- Limited Health Care (% of population without health care coverage – 2008)
- Poor Physical Health (% ranking own health as “poor” or “fair” – 2008)
- Limited Exercise (% of population who had not exercised in the past month -2008)
Our unemployment rate is the third-highest in the nation, which pushed Detroit high on the stress meter. But our short commute time (23rd nationally) and our short working hours (30th nationally), went a long way to mitigate our stress. Alas, it was our health condition that finally did us in. Detroiters ranked sixth for poor physical health and eighth for limited exercise. While health insurance coverage has always been high in Michigan, the steady loss of Big Three union jobs that came with health benefits has bumped Detroit down to 16th out of 40.
Want to know who fared worse?
- Las Vegas
- Los Angeles
- Houston
- Tampa
- Riverside, CA
- Miami
- Dallas
- New York
- Chicago
Do you agree with the ranking? Please tell us how your stress-index has changed in recent years. What strategies can we follow to move our overall ranking closer to 40?
[1] While Forbes ranked “cities,” the data used actually covers metropolitan areas. For the survey, “Detroit” really encompasses the 6-county (Lapeer, Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, St. Clair and Wayne) Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI Metropolitan Statistical Area. Forbes ranked the 40 largest metropolitan areas in the nation.
