America's Most Stressful Cities 2010

Francesca Levy Yahoo! Real Estate 08/18/2010 15:44

Every day overwhelmed Las Vegas residents flood the Stress Management Center of Nevada, looking for relief from their problems. They often complain of irregular work hours that keep them away from their families, and tensions that result from family health crises.

"Las Vegas has got its share of stressors," says Kathleen Grace Santor M.Ed., Ed.S., a therapist and yoga instructor who founded the center and has studied stress for 15 years. "The 24-hour day requires employees to work 24 hours a day. They're too busy, they have too much on their plate, and they're always hurried."

There's a good reason that Santor's business is brisk. Forbes found Las Vegas to be the most stressful city in the country, followed by Los Angeles, Calif., and Houston, Texas.

To pinpoint the most stressed-out cities, we measured the country's largest metropolitan areas on six metrics that can either cause or be caused by stress: high unemployment, long commute times, long work hours, limited access to health care, poor physical health and a lack of exercise.

To 36 million tourists per year, Las Vegas is a place to blow off steam and get away from the pressures of daily life. But residents of the city are far from carefree. The housing crisis and recession hit the city hard, and it currently has a 14.5% unemployment rate, the highest of all the cities we studied.