From Asia to Europe, The Most Stressed-Out Cities
2011. I am a trainee at a global energy trader leaving the office at 18:30. Just an ordinary day in ordinary life in one of the most stressful cities in the world. At least that is what I thought.
I walk to the parking lot, where my Chevrolet Corsa waits for me. The air is damp, and a water droplet touches my nose. Another hits my eyebrow, and a third one lands just above my lip.
It is raining. A refreshing, mild drizzle in a subtropical city, cleaning the air, and washing the streets. The smell of wet grass excites my nose. What an enjoyable feeling.
But I remember that this is São Paulo. Almost 22 million people live here, cramped in less than 8000 square km. It is almost the entire population of Australia, in an area smaller than Puerto Rico.
In São Paulo, these delicate, soothing droplets are a prelude to chaos.
Listen to “The 8 Most Stressful Cities in The World – What They Can Teach Us” on Spreaker.The Metropolitan Problem – The Largest Cities on Eart Lead To the Most Stressful Life
São Paulo is no different from hundreds of other mega-cities. They are stressful, densely populated, polluted, and often violent. A small disturbance like rainfall can unleash havoc and make you waste hours in traffic.
Why people are still attracted to them? The usual answer is better salaries. But even the clearest benefit has a dark face: the higher salaries also result in higher living costs, forcing common people to live in cubicles if they want to build their savings and escape from the Metropolis.
Days ago, I found a surprising ranking about urban stress. São Paulo and other cities I lived in (Doha, Warsaw, Santiago) were all similar in terms of how stressful they are. And none of them are among the most or the least stressful cities in the world, but somewhere in the middle.
(Also, no wonder they are not among the best destinations to retire or the most beautiful European capitals).
This made me curious to understand more about the most stressful cities in the world, and in this article, I will present to you what I found. But first, the ranking method.
The VAAY Ranking to Define the Most Stressful Cities in The World
To build the ranking, VAAY used a method considering indicators as:
- Governance — Safety, Security, Stability, etc.
- Demographic and Geographic factors — People/km2, Traffic, Weather, Air/Noise/Light Pollution.
- Finance — Unemployment Rate, Living Costs vs Wages, Social Security, etc.
- Public Health Services.
VAAY calculated it by scoring and averaging each indicator in the following way, as explained by them:
z-Score = x — mean(X)Standard deviation(X)in short x — μσ
[…] Where present for a factor, scores are normalised such that 1 equals the lowest value in the final dataset and 100 the highest value in the final dataset. The equation for normalization is as follows: score = (100–1) *x — min(X)max(X) — min(X)+1
The final score was determined by calculating the sum of the weighted average score of all the indicators.
From my experience of visiting some of these cities, I could only agree with the results.
Check also the video: The 8 Most Stressful Cities in The World – What They Can Teach Us
8th Most Stressful City in the World: Karachi, Pakistan
Karachi had decent results in things like traffic, weather, and financial stress. The city also has a relatively low cost of living even considering the local income.
But dreadful scores in noise pollution — It is curious how it has a low traffic index but high noise pollution at the same time. Maybe the few drivers are using their honks too frequently — health services and political stability put the largest city in Pakistan among the 8 most stressful cities in the world.
Karachi’s total score (from 0 to 100): 36.6
7th Most Stressful City in the World: Moscow, Russia
Among the 8 most stressful cities in the world, Moscow is the only one in a country with a high human development index (HDI > 0.800). It is also the only city not in Asia or Africa.
To make the Russian capital’s presence in this list even more peculiar, it scored excellent results in factors like air pollution — the city has plenty of green areas and industrial parks are far from residential zones.
The average salary in Moscow is also far higher than any other among the 8 most stressful cities in the world: at 1600 USD per month, it is over 300% of the average wage in Karachi, for example. Unemployment is only 3.6% — Lagos, in Nigeria, has it 10 times worse. It is also much higher than the average salary in Russia, one of the most unequal countries in the world.
So how Moscow came to be one of the 8 most stressful large cities in the world? The explanation is in 3 indicators where the Russian capital had terrible results:
1st — Moscow had the worst result of all the cities surveyed in vehicle traffic. The score varies between 1 and 100, and the Russian metropolis scored 1. According to The Moscow Times, the city has the worst traffic jams on the planet.
2nd — Financial Stress. Moscow has an average salary far higher than the rest of Russia. But the living costs skyrocketed, and land prices became prohibitive in many areas. In some streets, there is no real estate available for less than 22 million dollars.
3rd — Weather. The indicator considers the optimal conditions for human life. We are talking about a city with short but scorching summers and freezing and dark winters. Further explanations are unnecessary.
Moscow’s total score (from 0 to 100): 36.1
6th Most Stressful City in the World: Kabul, Afghanistan
Afghanistan is in the middle of a civil war, and the current government and Taliban dispute its capital. This is enough to understand why Kabul had the lowest results possible (1 on a scale between 1 and 100) in Safety & Security and Social & Political Stability. It also had the minimum score in healthcare access. Kabul is not in an even worse position thanks to the mild climate and the low living costs.
Kabul’s total score (from 0 to 100): 34.3
5th Most Stressful City in the World: Baghdad, Iraq
While Baghdad is not as dangerous as Kabul, it is still in an unstable region marked by conflict. Put in the equation the dry weather and the scarce natural resources to comprehend why the Iraq capital is among the 5 most stressful cities in the world.
Surprisingly, however, Baghdad has better healthcare services than most of the cities on this list.
Baghdad’s total score (from 0 to 100): 31.7
4th Most Stressful City in the World: New Delhi, India
Videos and photos of reddened, dusty skies over Indian megacities are often a topic of discussion about how progress can burden the environment. New Delhi had the worst possible scores in air pollution and social security, and one of the worst results in car traffic.
New Delhi’s total score (from 0 to 100): 31.5
3rd Most Stressful City in the World: Manila, Philippines
On the positive side, Manila had the best score on this list — and one of the best overall — in mental health. Years ago, while in Qatar, I worked with many Filipinos. They have an optimistic approach, even when facing natural disasters or economic difficulties.
I would bet that this approach contributes to their good score in mental health.
But Manila got the 3rd place among the most stressful cities in the world because of a terrible result in traffic (3.3 on a scale from 1 to 100), plus negative results in safety, pollution, and weather — to be in the center of a typhoon zone does not help.
It is also the most densely populated city on this list — over 20 thousand people per sq/km.
Manila’s total score (from 0 to 100): 29.4
2nd Most Stressful City in the World: Lagos, Nigeria
Lagos had the worst possible result in noise pollution, plus a single-digit score (on a scale that goes to 100) in healthcare access. It likewise performed poorly in safety, social & political stability, and unemployment. 37% of the population does not have a job.
Lagos’ total score (from 0 to 100): 19.9
The Most Stressful City in the World: Mumbai, India
Mumbai is the 7th largest city in the world. It is also one of the most polluted; it has some of the worst traffic jams, has skies covered in pollution, is subject to floods, and has high living costs compared to the national income levels.
If all that is not enough, it had a minimal score in social security.
Mumbai total score (from 0 to 100): 1
If You Want to Know Also the Least Stressed Cities on Earch, Check:
The 8 Most Relaxed Cities in The World
Among the least stressful in the world, you will find European cities like Helsinki (Finland), Reykjavik (Iceland), Bern (Switzerland), and others.
If, instead of a stressful life, you are looking for challenges and countries with business opportunities and fast-growing economies. The articles below will help you with that:
The Best Countries to Start a New Life Abroad with No Money
10 Business-Friendly Countries with Low Taxes and Little Bureaucracy
The best city for Digital Nomads and (some) expats!
Levi Borba is CEO of expatriateconsultancy.com, creator of the channel The Expat, and best-selling author. You can check his books here.
