Ranked: The World’s Most and Least Stressful Cities

Which Cities Are the Most and Least Stressful?

Key Takeaways

• New York ranks as the world’s most stressed city, with Dublin close behind.

• A 10 km journey in Dublin takes more than twice as long as in cities on the “least stressed” list.

• Four Dutch cities rank among the world’s 10 least stressed.

Major cities offer access to jobs and opportunities, but often at the cost of longer commutes, higher expenses, and everyday pressures.

Yet the most stressful cities aren’t necessarily the largest, with some smaller European cities ranking surprisingly high.

This visualization uses data from Remitly, which analyzed 170 cities using information collected in October 2025. Each city received a stress score out of 10 based on travel times, cost of living, healthcare quality, perceived crime, and air pollution.

The scores reflect urban living conditions rather than residents’ self-reported stress.

The World’s 10 Most Stressed Cities

New York’s fast-paced reputation makes its top ranking unsurprising. Dublin, however, finishes almost level with it, ahead of much larger cities such as Mexico City, Manila, and London.

Traffic helps explain Dublin’s position, with congestion making travel unusually slow for a city of its size.

The table below ranks the 10 cities with the highest stress scores.

RankCityCountryStress Score

1New YorkUSA7.56

2DublinIreland7.55

3Mexico CityMexico7.38

4ManilaPhilippines7.34

5LondonUK7.25

6MilanItaly7.25

7AthensGreece7.23

8São PauloBrazil7.14

9TurinItaly6.90

10KolkataIndia6.89

New York ranks first with a score of 7.56, just 0.01 points ahead of Dublin. While New York has particularly high living costs, Dublin stands out for its traffic.

According to Remitly, driving 10 km in Dublin takes around 32 minutes, compared with an average of 21 minutes across the cities studied. That’s roughly 50% longer than the sample average.

Kolkata, which ranks 10th overall, has the slowest travel times in the dataset. A 10 km journey takes an average of 34 minutes and 33 seconds, more than three times as long as in San Antonio, Texas, the fastest city at 10 minutes and 13 seconds.

Europe also features prominently, with Dublin, London, Milan, Turin, and Athens all appearing among the 10 most stressed cities.

The World’s 10 Least Stressed Cities

At the opposite end of the ranking, the Netherlands stands out. Eindhoven and Utrecht occupy the top two spots, with two other Dutch cities also making the top 10.

The contrast with Dublin is striking, as cities in these two relatively wealthy European countries perform very differently on Remitly’s measures of urban stress.

The table below shows the 10 cities with the lowest stress scores.

RankCityCountryStress Score

1EindhovenNetherlands2.34

2UtrechtNetherlands2.67

3CanberraAustralia2.80

4TallinnEstonia2.83

5GronigenNetherlands2.84

6TrondheimNorway2.84

7BergenNorway2.85

8PortoPortugal2.97

9BrisbaneAustralia2.98

10RotterdamNetherlands3.34

Eindhoven ranks as the world’s least stressed city, scoring just 2.34 thanks in part to shorter commutes, strong healthcare scores, and low perceived crime.

A 10 km journey takes just under 15 minutes in Eindhoven, compared with approximately 32 minutes in Dublin.

Utrecht ranks second, while Groningen and Rotterdam place fifth and 10th, respectively. The Netherlands is the only country with four cities in the least-stressed top 10.

Norway and Australia also perform well, with two cities each: Trondheim and Bergen for Norway, and Canberra and Brisbane for Australia.

These results overlap with broader quality-of-life rankings. In Visual Capitalist’s ranking of the world’s best cities for quality of life in 2026, Canberra ranks first and Bergen second.

Although the methodologies differ, both studies highlight the importance of healthcare, environmental quality, and everyday convenience.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed this visualization, check out Good Luck Buying a Home in These Cities! on the Voronoi app.