By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation,
The most laidback place to live in the United States is Nebraska, while people living in New Mexico experience the nation’s highest levels of stress, according to a recent study by WalletHub, a personal finance website. Oregon ranked 10th in the nation for stress as measured by 40 key indicators, including work-week hours, median income, childcare costs, bankruptcy rates, and the amount of sleep adults get. It ranked sixth in both family-related stress and high childcare costs and third in parental stress. Fewer Oregonians feel overworked as the state ranked 47th with regard to average hours worked weekly.
Oregon could reduce the stress of bankruptcy rates by reducing its high taxes. Instead Oregon is considering 13 different tax increases in the 2025 Legislature (property tax, alcohol tax, drink container tax, gas tax increase, new tire tax, used car tax, new car tax, truck tax increase, tech tax, and many more).
Oregon could reduce the stress from childcare costs by reducing taxes, fees, and regulations that increase labor costs and utility costs. This shows how Oregon’s heavy handed environmental regulations (not found in most places in America) are causing real price point pain for Oregonians which cause more stress.
Oregon could reduce traffic gridlock since our leading city has been listed in the top 15 highest congested cities in America for over a decade.
Such stress leads to higher health costs and earlier deaths.
The most stressed states are New Mexico, Nevada, Louisiana, West Virginia and Mississippi, while the least are Iowa, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Minnesota and Nebraska. Overall, Washington was 16th, and California just behind at 17th. New York was 23rd.
