Head to Maryland if you're stressed about your health. The residents there are the sixth least-stressed about it in the nation. Studies have shown that simply having peace of mind about your healthcare actually improves your overall health! It's a placebo thing. The one caveat here is that Maryland is the 18th most stressful place to work. It inhibits Maryland from ranking higher than 15th overall.
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Connecticut's highest ranking (aka least stressful) area for its residents is also health related. It also places just outside the top 10 for the least stress regarding money and family issues. Like many Northeastern states, though, it received low marks for work stress. It's the 14th most stressful state in that category.
Where Montana really seems to shine is in regards to family stress. It's the 10th least stressful state in that category. This means that the state has lower levels of separation and divorce, a lower share of single parents, low costs of childcare, good parental-leave policies, and a high share of parental emotional support.
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Midwestern and Western states rank well when it comes to low family stress. Kansas was the state with the 7th least amount of family stressors. It also ranks above the national average when it comes to low rates of money and health stressors. Kansans need to watch out at work, though. They are above the national average when it comes to work stress, which prevented the state from entering into the top 10 overall.
New Hampshire is the 5th least stressed state when it comes to money. That means that New Hampshire residents have relatively high median incomes (adjusted for cost of living), low median debt, good credit scores, good housing affordability, and a low percentage of the state's population living below the poverty line.
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Nebraska's best ranking category is also money-related stress where it has the 11th lowest rate in the nation. It is also well below the national averages in the other 3 categories. With sunsets like these, we'd be relaxed, too!
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Hawai'i receives high marks for low amounts of work-related stress, family stress, and health-related stress. It is the eighth least-stressed in the first two and seventh least-stressed in health-related stressors in the country. Having beachfront just steps away seems to pay off. The one downside is the somewhat high stress related to money, which stems from the high cost of living in Hawai'i. Otherwise, the Aloha State may have been in the top 5 overall.
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Massachusetts is one of the best states in which to work, coming in at fifth least stressful in the nation for that category. This means that the state has low unemployment and underemployment rates, good job security, healthy amounts of available leisure time for residents, and low commute times. It's low rankings in the other metrics bump it up to the eighth least stressed state overall.
Across many health national health metrics, Colorado ranks near the top. It shouldn't be surprising, then, that it is the 9th least stressful state when it comes to health concerns. There must be something in that high-altitude air! But that's not even Colorado's best category. It's the 4th least stressful state in the nation when it comes to work.
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Wisconsin is the 8th least stressed state when it comes to money matters, thanks to a relatively low cost of living, and the 9th least stressed state for work- and family-related concerns. It just misses out on the top 5 overall thanks to a middling health stress score.
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Thanks to South Dakota's low-stress rankings all-around, it nudges itself into the top 5 of overall low-stress states. It's best scoring area is in the health department, where it places as the 4th least stressed state when it comes to health issues. But it's not the only Dakota in the top 5!
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Iowa's work stress score is a bit of an outlier, but when it comes to the other metrics, there's no surprise why the Hawkeye State ranks so highly on this listing. It is the 6th least stressed about money, 5th least stressed about family matters, and third least stressed about health concerns.
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If there's one thing we learned from this listing, it's "Head out West for less stress!" Utah is the least stressed state in the nation when it comes to work. It also has the second lowest amount of stress when it comes to family matters.
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It must be nice living in the Dakotas seeing as how they both made it into the top 5! North Dakota edges out its southern neighbor in every category and leads the nation in having the least amount of family-related stress. It is also the second least-stressed state in regards to money.
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