Brisbane may be a bit stressful at times, what with the rising cost of living, transport inconveniences and all the minor annoyances we tend to encounter just by virtue of living in a city. But our famously laidback vibe has still landed us a spot in a list of the world’s least stressed out cities.
A recent study by Remitly calculated the stress index for over 170 major cities worldwide, by taking into account several factors that contribute to stress. The five factors they measured were:
- Average time to travel 10km: capturing how long daily journeys take and the potential strain of congestion.+
- Cost of living index: the relative prices of goods like groceries, transportation, and utilities, not including housing costs like rent or mortgage payments.
- Healthcare index: how accessible and high-quality each city’s healthcare system is, based on factors such as medical staff, facilities, equipment, and affordability.
- Crime index: measuring perceived safety and security in daily life, based on survey data from people around the world.
- Average annual pollution (µg/m³): indicating air quality in the area.
These factors were sourced for each country using recent information and then were scored and combined to create a “stress score” out of 10, with 10 being the most stressful living conditions.
Brisbane’s stress score
Good ol’ Brissy just made the top 10, coming in at number 9 with an overall score of 2.98. Its position is mostly thanks to an extremely low average annual pollution (2.9), the perceived safety of the city (our crime index is 37.5), and high healthcare index of 74.2.
Interestingly, we’re not the least stressed city in Australia. That honour goes to Canberra, despite its higher cost of living score — 69.3 to our 63.5 — in large part, it seems due a shorter average commute time. Brisbane’s infamous traffic means that it takes 16 minutes and 6 seconds on average to travel 10km, while in the capital it takes 15 minutes and 50 seconds.
The 10 least stressed cities in the world
- Eindhoven, Netherlands
- Utrecht, Netherlands
- Canberra, Australia
- Tallinn, Estonia
- Groningen, Netherlands
- Trondheim, Norway
- Bergen, Norway
- Porto, Portugal
- Brisbane, Australia
- Rotterdam, Netherlands
With a whopping 4 cities in the top 10, it’s clear the Netherlands must be doing something right —we’re not saying the answer is cheese, but it’s not not cheese.
As for the top 10 most stressful cities in the world, there’s the usual suspects like New York City and London, and some surprises such as Dublin (in second place!) and Athens. No Aussie cities though! Must be that sun-soaked life.