The Number

Business professionals complain about “stress,” but what is it? And where can you go to escape from it? WalletHub, the credit score website in Washington, D.C., has created an index ranking cities based on stress, and several Valley municipalities appear on the high and low ends of the list. Among the 150 largest cities in the country, Los Angeles ranked as the 36th most stressful place to live. On the low side, Glendale ranked 125 and Santa Clarita at 115. The results show that a small geographic move can have a big impact on stress – Glendale and L.A. are adjacent on the map. “Cities from the same regions do not necessarily have similar rankings,” Jill Gonzalez, a WalletHub analyst, said in an email to the Business Journal. “Stress is not regionally bound.” The index methodology included metrics such as divorce rate, cost of living, and debt-to-earnings ratio. Of particular significance to the Valley region were the measurements of housing affordability and commute time. “Santa Clarita has the edge over Los Angeles in median annual household income, at $55,973 rather than $35,281,” Gonzalez said. “There’s also a big discrepancy between the two regarding poverty rate, Santa Clarita ranking 141st at 9.3 percent, while Los Angeles is 46th at 22.1 percent. “Glendale outranks both in housing affordability, ranking 100th. For the same metric, Santa Clarita ranks 37th and Los Angeles ranks first – the higher the number, the better.” Nationally, the most stressful cities tended to underperform economically, with Newark, N.J. topping the list followed by Detroit and Cleveland. On the other end, the least stressful places had affluence. Fremont in Northern California ranked tops for tranquility, followed by wealthy enclaves Plano, Texas; Overland Park, Kan.; and Scottsdale, Ariz. In general, city rankings for stress don’t change much – but Los Angeles proved an exception, rising from 57th last year to 36th this year. – Joel Russell