Maine Tops the List as New England’s Most Stressed State

Hey, Maine, I think it's time we all stop for a second, relax, and take a collective deep breath.

I must say, I'm a little concerned for all of us, considering the results of a new report analyzing stress. It appears that we Mainers are not exactly living the chill life we should be.

Wallethub.com, a personal finance website, recently published its annual report of the most and least stressed states in the nation.

Maine Listed as the Most Stressed State in New England in Recent Report

Our wonderful state didn't fare so well, especially compared to our New England brethren. Maine was ranked as the most stressed state in the region—yes, even behind Connecticut.

Overall, Maine was ranked as the 22nd most stressed state in the nation. While not the worst result, it pales in comparison to the rest of New England. The next highest-ranking New England state was Rhode Island, which came in at 29th overall.

Maine's stress score was 45.52 out of a possible 100 points. The scoring system is based on four major categories: Work-Related Stress, Money-Related Stress, Family-Related Stress, and Health & Safety-Related Stress. These categories were broken down into 41 subcategories to make the analysis as detailed as possible. You can read more about the methodology here.

Maine's rankings in these categories tell an interesting story, with two categories scoring well and the other two being rather disastrous.

The Pine Tree State's work-related and family-related stress levels were actually ranked quite well. Both categories were ranked 35th in the nation, which puts Maine much closer to its New England cousins.

Report Shows Much of Maine's Stress is Money and Health-Related

What really hurt Maine's stress ranking were the money-related and health-related categories, which saw our wonderful state ranked an unfortunate 13th and 11th, respectively. This essentially means Maine struggled with issues such as debt collections, lack of savings, mental and physical health, unaffordability of doctor visits, and inadequate health care. I would say all of these would certainly make me rather stressed. It's easy to see why Maine ranks so high in stress.

How Stressed is the Rest of New England?

As mentioned earlier, Rhode Island came in as the 29th most stressed state, with Vermont right behind at 30th. Connecticut was near the bottom at 42nd, and Massachusetts came in a strong 45th.

Congratulations to New Hampshire, which ranked as the 3rd least stressed state in the entire nation. Apparently, it pays to Live Free or Die. I mean, it makes sense to me.

While Maine's overall ranking isn't horrible, it still pales in comparison to its closest peers. This begs the question: what can we do better here? What are other New England states doing that Maine isn't? The last thing this great state needs to be is a negative outlier compared to the rest of the northeastern region.

As rough as this ranking is for Maine, at least it's not New Mexico. The southwestern state is officially the most stressed state in the nation, with a whopping score of 60.52. But I thought it was a dry heat?