Community Corner
Where Does Maryland Land on List of Most Stressed-Out States?
Florida ranked number one, but Maryland cracked the top 10. What's freaking Marylanders out?
Are you stressed? If you are a Maryland commuter trapped in traffic, then the answer is a resounding yes.
If you live in Florida or Georgia you probably are. The two states ranked number one and two respectively on Movoto's list of most stressed-out states in the country.
But, Maryland came in at a worrisome No. 8 on the list. Movoto blogger Chris Kolmar says Maryland actually fared alright for four of our six criteria, but it took the tops in commute time, where almost 70 percent of people spend longer than 20 minutes getting to work. The state's high level of population density (fifth highest) undoubtedly contributes to the commute problems.
What's your stress level, Maryland? Is it all because of DC? Tell us in comments below.
The survey, which is based on data from the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey for 2008-2012, considered unemployment rates, length of commutes, weekly work hours, population density, percentage of income spent on housing and percentage of the population without health insurance.
Kolmar suggests that Maryland residents blame all their stress on Washington, D.C.
Namely:
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- Population Density: Why would anyone want to live in Maryland? It must be to be close to D.C.
- Commute: You have a ton of people trying to get into DC everyday from all over the state.
We could probably get Maryland to calm down a bit by moving the nation’s capital to where it should be: Hawaii, he writes.
Florida topped the list because of its high unemployment rate 11.3 percent and the large percentage of residents without insurance, 25 percent. The state also has the seventh worst average commute in the country and the eighth most dense population.Georgia received worst-10 rankings in work hours, no insurance, length of commute and unemployment (although the 10.7 percent jobless rate Movoto used was nearly 4 points worse than the current rate of 7 percent).
The remaining top ten most stressed states in order were: New Jersey, California, Nevada, Illinois, New York, North Carolina and Arizona.
Click here for more on why these states are stressed out.
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