11:12 AM PST on Monday, January 12, 2004

Associated Press

PORTLAND — A study of the nation’s most stressful cities lists Tacoma, Wash., at the top of the major metro areas.

The study by Sperling’s BestPlaces took into account unemployment, the divorce rate, commuter time, violent and property crime, the suicide rate, alcohol consumption, self-reported poor mental health and cloudy days.

KING Downtown Tacoma, Wash.

On a list of medium-size metro areas, Salem ranked 11th on a list of 114 between Shreveport-Bossier City, La., and Spokane, Wash. Eugene-Springfield finished as the 17th most-stressful on that list ahead of Lafayette, La., and behind Rockford, Ill.

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Sperling's BestPlace most stressful cities list

Among smaller metro areas Medford-Ashland ranked 20th on a list of 117 between Florence, S.C., and Alexandria, Ala. Corvallis was 106th between St. Cloud, Minn., and Iowa City, Iowa.

The study gave the heaviest weight in the survey to unemployment, crime, commute time and suicide. Alcohol consumption and cloudy days were given the least weight.

“Most of the top-ten stress cities are grappling with high unemployment,” said Bert Sperling, CEO of Fast Forward, Inc., which produces the BestPlaces Web site.

He said that has ties to crime and declining tax revenues that force reductions in social services. Those are all common to Oregon in recent years, and to the Portland area in particular, which has often topped the nation in joblessness.

Among low-stress cities,the report said, common characteristics tend to include capital cities and college towns. That helps explain the low-stress ranking for Corvallis, but not the relatively high-stress rankings of the Salem and Eugene-Springfield areas.

“Government and universities provide a solid economic base to smaller cities, lessening the stress caused by economic cycles,” Sterling wrote.