These Are America's Most and Least Stressed States

Least stressed states
WalletHub
WalletHub

There are a lot of things working damn hard to make life stressful. Work. Politics. The Cleveland Cavaliers. McDonald's not re-releasing Szechuan sauce. However, stress is not evenly distributed across the United States. At least, that's the contention from WalletHub, the same company who last year created a list of the least stressed cities in the United States. The company has applied some of those same principles to determine the most and least stressed states in the U.S.

The upper Midwest fared well, claiming the four least-stressed states. Topping that pile was Minnesota. It must be all those lakes to chill at, as well as never having the expectation that a sports team will win a championship. Vikings lost again? No big deal, that's how it's always going to be. 

At the other end of the spectrum, a trio of adjacent states in the south are America's hub for tooth-grinding levels of stress. The most-stressed state in the union is Alabama, followed by Louisiana and Mississippi. 

WalletHub breaks down the categorical rankings that led to the overall rankings. The list includes categories like most and least hours worked per week, with Alaska topping the former and Utah the latter. Kentucky came in with the lowest job security, while the good people of Delaware are quite secure in the jobs, even if their state is smaller than average.

Mississippi proved to be the state with the lowest credit scores, while North Dakota and Minnesota topped the other end of the spectrum. Mississippi also has the largest percentage of the state's population living below the poverty line, while New Hampshire sits at the other end of that category.

Other key stats include divorce rate, access to affordable housing, the percentage of adults in fair to poor health, crime rate, psychologists per capita, and average hours of sleep per night.

While there isn't a way to put together a conclusive list of which states experience the least stress, these categories provide interesting insight into the quality of life in different states (or at least some nonsensical bragging rights to lord over your friend from Alabama). Below, find a full ranking of the nation's 50 states from most to least stressed, according to WalletHub. Check out their study for more details and category breakdowns.

1. Alabama
2. Louisiana
3. Mississippi
4. West Virginia
5. Kentucky
6. New Mexico
7. Nevada
8. Georgia
9. Tennessee
10. Arkansas
11. South Carolina
12. Alaska
13. Florida
14. Arizona
15. Oklahoma
16. North Carolina
17. Ohio
18. District of Columbia
19. Indiana
20. Missouri
21. Oregon
22. Michigan
23. California
24. Texas
25. New York
26. Rhode Island
27. Maine
28. Pennsylvania
29. Delaware
30. Virginia
31. Idaho
32. Illinois
33. Maryland
34. Washington
35. Montana
36. Hawaii
37. Massachusetts
38. Wyoming
39. Connecticut
40. Kansas
41. New Jersey
42. Wisconsin
43. Colorado
44. Vermont
45. New Hampshire
46. Nebraska
47. Utah
48. South Dakota
49. Iowa
50. North Dakota
51. Minnesota

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Dustin Nelson is a News Writer with Thrillist. He holds a Guinness World Record but has never met the fingernail lady. Follow him @dlukenelson.