Compared to the nation, Louisiana ranked the third-most stressed state with an overall stress score of 56.21, according to data gathered by WalletHub. That’s significantly higher than the national average stress score of 44.85.
Stress can come from many sources: work, traffic, friends, money, children and more. But chronic stress can be detrimental to health, according to the American Psychological Association, with women and young people experiencing the most stress.
Continued stress can cause wear and tear on the body including anxiety, muscle tension, headaches, heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, sleep problems and much more.
The most stressed states include, in descending order:
- New Mexico with a stress score of 60.52,
- Nevada with a stress score of 59.9,
- Louisiana with a stress score of 56.21,
- West Virginia with a stress score of 55.28,
- and Mississippi with a stress score of 54.66.
The least stressed states include, in ascending order:
- Nebraska with a stress score of 31.83,
- Minnesota with a stress score of 32.32,
- New Hampshire with a stress score of 32.49,
- South Dakota with a stress score of 32.66,
- and Iowa with a stress score of 35.69.
WalletHub, an online tool to compare financial products, determined each state’s “stress score” by combining 40 different data points in four different categories: money-related stress, family-related stress, health and safety-related stress and work-related stress.
Data used included average hours worked per week, job security, credit scores, cost of child care, divorce rates, mental health rates, physical activity rates, insufficient sleep rates and more. See the full list of data points at wallethub.com.