Stress Test

Feeling tense? It’s no wonder: We’re living in the fourth most stressful area in America, at least according to Forbes’ recently released rankings. Analysts looked at quality of life factors, such as cost of living, population density, air quality, median home price drop and even the number of sunny days per year to come up with the fact that apparently the livin’ is not easy here in PVD. The only areas that faired worse are Chicago, which ranked first again this year, Los Angeles and New York.

Last year, the ranking wizards said Providence was only the ninth most stressful city. Not bad at all. But this year we’re tied for fourth with Cleveland. What accounts for the jump? Who knows, but we did notice Forbes and the Census Bureau groups Providence, Fall River and New Bedford into one metro area. What’s up with that? And why didn’t Boston, less than an hour away, even crack the top 40? Do they get more sun and less pollution than we do? Just thinking about it is stressing me out.