A grueling Presidential election, seemingly endless hurricanes plaguing the entire country and long average work hours are, apparently, not a recipe for extreme stress—at least according to Zipjet's 2017 Global Least and Most Stressful Cities Ranking, which doesn't include any American city in the top 50 list.
The study examines mental health levels of cities across the world and delves deep into potential stress-inducing factors—think traffic, security, pollution, unemployment rates, debt per capita and average sunshine hours.
“Mental health problems are on the rise worldwide, with stress being a trigger and contributing factor towards this increase. We hope that by pinpointing how the least stressful cities are managing this issue, those cities struggling with a stressed out population can overcome it,” writes Florian Färber, managing director of Zipjet, on the company's site. “We’re happy to be a part of the wave of digitalization working to reduce stress all around the world.”
Interestingly enough, the United States is mentioned for the first time on the ranking at number 67, a spot held by New York. Other local cities on the list are Chicago (68), Los Angeles (70), Miami (71), Washington, DC (94), San Francisco (111), Boston (115) and Seattle (139). Considering the stress levels that folks living in war-torn Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria undoubtedly have to live with, the results aren't surprising.
You can scroll through the entire ranking right here and check out the top 30 list, from most to least stressed out cities in the world, below:
1. Baghdad, Iraq
2. Kabul, Afghanistan
3. Lagos, Nigeria
4. Dakar, Senegal
5. Cairo, Egypt
6. Tehran, Iran
7. Dhaka, Bangladesh
8. Karachi, Pakistan
9. New Delhi, India
10. Manila, Philippines
11. Damascus, Syria
12. Caracas, Venezuela
13. Mumbai, India
14. Yaoundé, Cameroon
15. São Paulo, Brazil
16. Johannesburg, South Africa
17. Algiers, Algeria
18. Casablanca, Morocco
19. Jakarta, Indonesia
20. Kolkata, India
21. Bangalore, India
22. Seoul, South Korea
23. San Salvador, El Salvador
24. Guatemala City, Guatemala
25. Colombo, Sri Lanka
26. Mexico City, Mexico
27. Moscow, Russia
28. Medellín, Colombia
29. Istanbul, Turkey
30. Athens, Greece