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Everyday life, but how happy are we? — Image by © Tim Sandle
Spring has sprung and with April being U.S. Stress Awareness Month and money, the economy and health issues proving to be the biggest stressors last year, finding ways to reduce stress are important in terms of personal health.
This task can be facilitated by different geographical locales. This appears to be the case within the U.S., according to analysis performed by the personal-finance website WalletHub.
The finance firm has issued a report on 2024’s Most & Least Stressed States, demonstrating where U.S. citizens can best take care of their mental health, plus which states are in need of improvement.
For the analysis, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 40 key metrics. The data set ranged from average hours worked per week to the personal bankruptcy rate to the share of adults getting adequate sleep.
From this, the most stressed states were found to be:
1. Louisiana
2. Mississippi
3. Nevada
4. New Mexico
5. Arkansas
6. West Virginia
7. Alabama
8. Kentucky
9. Oklahoma
10. Texas
Louisiana is perhaps the most stressed state, in large part because it has one of the highest violent crime rates per capita and property crime rates per capita.
In contrast, the least stressed states were identified as:
41. Hawaii
42. Nebraska
43. Delaware
44. North Dakota
45. Idaho
46. Iowa
47. New Hampshire
48. Utah
49. South Dakota
50. Minnesota
Within the data sets there were some interesting contrasts. For example, North Dakota was found to possess the lowest unemployment rate, which is 2.7 times lower than in Nevada, the highest.
Another important economic measure is relative poverty. Here, New Hampshire has the lowest share of the population living in poverty, which is 2.6 times lower than in Mississippi, the highest. Poverty has a connection with health. On this measure, Hawaii and Massachusetts have the lowest share of adults in fair or poor health, which is 1.8 times lower than in Mississippi, the highest.
Breaking up relationship[s is another indicator of stress. Utah has the lowest separation and divorce rate, which is 1.7 times lower than in New Mexico, the highest.
Another indicator is mental illness. Data associated with this is medical visits and with this, Massachusetts has the most psychologists per 100,000 residents, which is 6.4 times more than in Alabama, the fewest.
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