10 Best U.S. Cities for Reducing Stress

Looking to reduce your stress level? You might want to consider moving to Anaheim, California. Homeowner website House Method analyzed data from America’s largest 100 cities in order to determine the best—and worst—cities for managing your stress level.

The company looked at the same five factors across all 100 cities: commute time, mental health counselors per capita, the percentage of people who exercise regularly, walkability (specifically: to a park), and the number of yoga instructors and classes. Once all the data was tallied, Anaheim, California ended up in the top spot with an overall score of 38.5.

"The city has beautiful weather, lots of sunshine, and Disneyland. How could you be stressed when Mickey lives right down the road?," House Method’s senior editor and researcher David Cusick wrote of the results. "While Anaheim didn’t have the best score for commute time, it did rank number one for the city with the most mental health counselors per capita and has a very high percentage of people who like to exercise frequently."

California did well overall; four of the survey’s top 10 cities were located in The Golden State: Oakland came in second, Irvine came in fourth, and San Francisco came in fifth (despite its high housing costs). Seattle and Spokane, Washington—which came in eighth and tenth, respectively—tipped the scales in the west coast’s favor. Here are the 10 best cities for reducing stress:

1. Anaheim, CA
2. Oakland, CA
3. Jersey City, NJ
4. Irvine, CA
5. San Francisco, CA
6. Minneapolis, MN
7. Madison, WI
8. Seattle, WA
9. Aurora, CO
10. Spokane, WA

On the other end of the rankings were America’s worst cities for reducing stress, with Laredo, Texas taking the title as the very worst. “Laredo ranked last for the amount of mental health counselors per capita, percentage of people who exercise, and the amount of yoga instructors/classes,” Cusick wrote. “Filling out the bottom five cities are Bakersfield, California (96); Indianapolis, Indiana (97); San Antonio, Texas (98); and Jacksonville, Florida (99).”

For the full list of city rankings, visit House Method.