Recession takes its emotional toll on cities The economic downturn could lead to higher rates of crime, divorce, alcohol and drug abuse, depression and suicide. By BusinessWeek
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To get a sense of where the pain points are greatest, BusinessWeek.com came up with a list of the 20 unhappiest cities. These are major cities that were ranked based on their rates of suicide, depression, divorce, unemployment, job loss, population loss, crime, amount of green space and cloudy days. BusinessWeek.com gave most emphasis to suicide and depression rates, crime and economic factors. The city with the highest overall score in our index was Portland, the beautiful Oregon city that also has very high depression and suicide rates. St. Louis, New Orleans and Detroit were high on the list, largely because of their rates of crime, unemployment and population loss. Other cities such as Las Vegas and Jacksonville, Fla., ranked high because of their suicide rates and difficult economic conditions.
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Top 10 unhappiest American cities
1. Portland, Ore. 2. St. Louis 3. New Orleans 4. Detroit 5. Cleveland 6. Jacksonville, Fla. 7. Las Vegas 8. Nashville-Davidson, Tenn. 9. Cincinnati 10. Atlanta