Posted By HR Partnership on October 28, 2009

To find the most stressful cities, Forbes examined quality of life factors in the country’s 40 largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSA), geographic entities defined by the Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics.

Hampton Roads’ MSA ranked 34th out of 40 overall. Ranking 33rd in median home price drop, 37th in unemployment rate, 18th in quality of life, 32nd in air quality, 19th in sunny days per year and 20th in population density.

The Top Ten most stressful cities? (ranked in order) Chicago IL, Los Angeles CA, New York NY, Cleveland OH, Providence RI, San Francisco CA, Detroit MI, Boston MA, Washington DC, San Jose CA.

Methodology:  Forbes looked at June 2009 unemployment figures provided by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics and cost of living figures from the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER); examined median home price drops from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009 that were provided by the National Association of Realtors; and factored in population density based on 2008 data from the U.S. Census Bureau and ESRI. Lastly, Forbes examined the number of sunny and partly sunny days per year, based on 2007 data from the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, as well as air quality figures, based on 2007 data from the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Here’s the full list, representing each MSA’s rank based on the measures above.

Categories: About Hampton Roads, Military Bastion
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