Your commute is too long. Your mortgage or rent is too high. You're stressed.
Welcome to Georgia.
A new analysis and ranking by Zippia, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2012-2016, puts Georgia as the No. 2 most stressed state in the country.
Being stressed out is nothing new to Georgians, though. Last year, WalletHub put the Peach State at No. 8 on its ranking. In 2014, Movoto ranked Georgia at No. 2 on its stress scale.
For its study, Zippia used six criteria:
- Long commute times
- Unemployment
- Hours worked
- Population density
- Home price to income ratio
- Percent uninsured population
Zippia then ranked each state from 1 (most stressed) to 50 in each category, and combined those rankings for one majorly stressed out score.
That put Georgia at No. 2, right behind New Jersey.
According to Zippia’s analysis, “many Georgians must tackle a high unemployment rate, high uninsured rate, and a long commute.”
The state's unemployment outlook is improving, however. The unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent in July, its lowest level since 2001.
What about traffic? Anyone who drives to work — or a game, or a concert, or through Atlanta on their way somewhere else — will tell you traffic is terrible.
In 2017, the INRIX Global Traffic Scorecard determined Atlanta has the eighth-worst traffic congestion in the world.
If you’re thinking of moving somewhere less stressful, don’t stay in the South. Seven of the top 10 stressed out states are southern.
- New Jersey
- Georgia
- Florida
- California
- New York
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- North Carolina
- Virginia
- Mississippi
The country's least-stressed states are clustered in the north central part of the country: Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and North and South Dakota.
Cox Media Group
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