With people struggling to pay the bills, it’s understandable that they are feeling incredibly stressed. But which cities have felt the pressure the most and which rising costs are Americans most stressed about?
Researchers at Online Money Advisor analysed more than 28,000 geotagged tweets in real-time from Americans about the current cost of living crisis to find out where people are worrying the most about money and which rising costs they are worried about the most. Our analysis included tweets that specifically mentioned the cost of living or rising prices related to essential items and living expenses, such as fuel, food, transport, and property.
The researchers applied the academic research tool TensiStrength, an AI tool developed by Professor Mike Thelwall at the University of Wolverhampton. It detects stress levels in short pieces of text and assigns them a stress level score from –5 (very stressed) to +5 (very relaxed). For their analysis, any tweet that scored between –2 (stressed) and –5 (very stressed) was considered ‘stressed’.
Key findings
- Americans on Twitter are most stressed out about Energy prices with 86.3% of tweets mentioning the rising price of energy registered as stressed.
- Driving costs are stressing out the public as well. With 84.8% of tweets registering as stressed this is the second most stressful living expense in the US.
- People in Omaha, NE are the most stressed about the cost of living crisis with 90.5% of tweets on the topic registered as stressed.
- Although people in New York City, NY are the least stressed about the cost of living crisis, 66.4% of tweets still register as stressed.
What living expenses are people in the US most stressed about increasing in price
They looked at what percentage of geotagged tweets were ‘stressed’ about the cost of living and increase in prices for various essential items and living expenses such as transport, food, fuel and property.
- Americans on Twitter are most stressed out about Energy prices. 86.3% of tweets mentioning the rising price of energy registered as stressed.
- Driving costs are stressing out the public as well. With 84.8% of tweets registering as stressed this is the second most stressful living expense in the US.
- Train fares come in a close third with 83.5% of tweets mentioning the rising train prices being stressed.
Which US cities are the most and least worried about the current cost of living crisis?
The American cities that are the most worried about the cost of living
Looking at the geotagged tweets in our analysis we were also able to find the cities that were most and least stressed about the cost of living crisis.
- People in Omaha, NE are the most stressed about the cost of living crisis. 90.5% of tweets on the topic registered as stressed.
- In second place is Tulsa, OK (89.2% of tweets being stressed) and in third is Wichita, KS (88.8%).
The American cities that are the least worried about the cost of living
Even in cities that rank as the ‘least worried about the cost of living’, the majority of people tweeting about the subject register as ‘stressed’ in the US.
- Although people in New York City, NY are the least stressed about the cost of living crisis, 66.4% of tweets still register as stressed.
- In second place is Los Angeles, CA (67.6% of tweets being stressed) and in third place is San Francisco, CA (72.3%).
