…happy, here’s a list of the saddest cities in America.
The listmakers simply checked out suicide, unemployment, and antidepressant-use statistics.
UD‘s Washington DC ranks high for sadness (they give it a D-), which, despite the low unemployment rate here, doesn’t surprise her. If you look at the list, two sorts of cities stand out, sadwise: rich ones, and poor ones.
Of course Detroit and Baltimore are sad!
But rich people in well-heeled cities take oodles of antidepressants and spend tons of time with psychiatrists and will probably if asked report that they’re sad. (The listmakers also checked out “the number of people who report feeling the blues all or most of the time.”)
November 29th, 2011 at 1:36PM
Interesting. It would be even more interesting to know how this correlates with a range of other variables. Age, for example…I don’t think your typical St Petersburg resident is any spring chicken. (Wonder if there was any attempt to hold age constant in the happiness vs income study you cited earlier?…People’s incomes generally go up with age, so it’s possible that income is to some extent acting as a proxy for age)
November 29th, 2011 at 3:30PM
Also: Stuart Schneiderman expands on a David Brooks column about the relationship between therapy/introspecting and happiness, or lack of same. link
November 30th, 2011 at 5:46PM
That list makes perfect sense to me. My regular job is in a city that gets an F, but I am currently on sabbatical in an A-. I am already planning on anti-depressants next August when I have to move back….
November 30th, 2011 at 6:15PM
Your pre-anti-depressant planning. Very prudent.