To most people, living abroad is the dream – a stress-free life and never-ending holiday. Whether you’re already an expat or only thinking of embracing moving abroad, there are places in the world that are less stressful for living and working. William Russell ranked 73 cities and 38 countries to find the most and least stressful in the world based on cleanliness, financial stress, LGBTQ+ safety and suicide rates to help you decide where to find your next big – and stress-free – challenge.
The top 10 most stressed cities in the world are:
|
Rank |
City |
LGBTQ+ Safety Rating |
Suicide Rates per 100,000 Population |
Estimated Monthly Cost of Living (Single Person) |
Cleanliness and Tidiness of City (/100) |
Poverty Headcount (% of population living on less than $5.50 a day) |
Stress score/10 |
|
1 |
Cairo |
-96 |
3.41 |
$435 |
17.22 |
73 |
7.67 |
|
2 |
Delhi |
65 |
12.91 |
$373 |
28.78 |
87 |
6.96 |
|
3 |
Karachi |
-89 |
9.77 |
$308 |
20.26 |
76 |
6.47 |
|
4 |
Mumbai |
65 |
12.91 |
$396 |
24.38 |
87 |
6.28 |
|
5 |
Baghdad |
-37 |
4.74 |
$527 |
20.37 |
52 |
6.08 |
|
6 |
Manila |
44 |
2.54 |
$571 |
21.49 |
47 |
5.92 |
|
7 |
Kolkata |
65 |
12.91 |
$399 |
33.41 |
87 |
5.84 |
|
8 |
São Paulo |
307 |
6.41 |
$493 |
28.04 |
20 |
5.81 |
|
9 |
Bangalore |
65 |
12.91 |
$367 |
27.8 |
87 |
5.69 |
|
10 |
Beijing |
15 |
6.67 |
$645 |
40.03 |
24 |
5.65 |
The most stressed city in the world is the Egyptian capital of Cairo, achieving an overall score of 7.67, which is significantly higher than the average score of 4.16. Cairo has one of the lowest LGBTQ+ safety ratings at -96, and also the second-lowest cleanliness rating of all cities on the list at 17.22.
In second and third place, Delhi, India and Karachi, Pakistan also make the top three most stressed cities in the world with scores of 6.96 and 6.47. Delhi and Karachi have the highest levels of air pollution in the world, while over 17% of the Delhi population lives in poverty.
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