Relax, Washingtonians
Washingtonians are pretty stressed people.
News website Vox shared Census Bureau data compiled by the Movoto Real Estate blog that was used to rank the most stressed states in America.
The data looked at six indicators correlated with stress: hours worked, population density, unemployment rate, commute length, amount of income spent on housing and number of people without health insurance.
Washington ranked No. 17 – a position it shares with Alabama and Rhode Island.
Our state’s highest rank – No. 11 – came in the “percent of income spent on housing” category. Next up, Washington was No. 12 in percent of people with more than a 20-minute commute.
Washington was No. 21 in unemployment, No. 24 in population density, No. 25 in uninsured and No. 36 in hours worked.
Washington, it turns out, is more stressed than its Northwest counterparts. Oregon ranked No. 29; Idaho was No. 36.
The most stressed state is Florida, followed by Georgia, New Jersey, California and Nevada.
The least stressed state is North Dakota.
Marissa Harshman
I'm the health reporter for The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver, Wash. I started at The Columbian -- my hometown newspaper -- in September 2009. Reach me at marissa.harshman@columbian.com or 360-735-4546.