Feeling a little stressed today, Florida? Well, according to real estate site Movoto, you've reason to be, since they ranked Florida no. 1 on their list of the most stressed states in the contiguous United States. When determining these stress rankings, Movoto considered the following:
- Percentage of population with a long commute (over 20 minutes)
- Unemployment
- Hours worked
- Population density
- Percentage of income spent on housing
- Percentage of population without health insurance
In every single one of these, except for the amount of hours worked, Florida landed in the top ten. Now, when looking strictly at numbers, it's easy to see how Florida came out on top, but there is much more to stress than statistics alone. Relationships, stress related to the job you are actually working and not just unemployment related stress, the stress following a life-changing event such as divorce or the death of a parent are all factors that contribute to mental pressure. And even on the statistics front, the real estate site left out a huge cause of stress to anyone who drives a car: traffic. OMG, drivers, seriously ... USE YOUR BLINKERS!
Movoto didn't even look at the flip side, not looking at the things in Florida that would help eliminate stress, like hundreds of miles of beaches, absolutely gorgeous state and local parks, near perfect weather (minus the ridiculous oppressive heat) and readily available escapes in the form of the theme parks of Orlando. Just last year, Gallup rated Florida one of the least stressed states in the nation. Wonder what caused our stress to shoot up so significantly in just one year?
