st. petersburgIt's hard to know how much a person's mood is determined by the city in which they live. But many of us can point to cities that make us happy (in my case, New York, Baltimore, Chicago) and cities that make us sad (I wept almost every day of the 10 months I lived in another city I won't name). The funny thing is, what makes a city a happy or sad place for someone is often deeply personal. And sometimes, even in a city that might seem to lend itself to the blues, there are compensating factors, things you can find there that may just cheer you right up: The weather in Seattle may be gloomy, for example, but you can always get a mood boost from that great coffee!

Anyhow, Men's Health recently came up with its list of the saddest cities in America, basing its rankings on suicide and unemployment rates, the percentage of households in which someone is on antidepressants, and the number of people who say they feel down either all or most of the time.

The results may surprise you, as they did me.

For instance, even though Florida is super-sunny, it's also apparently super-sad, with three cities in the top 10. The very pretty St. Petersburg, Florida, in fact, ranks atop Men's Health's list as the Saddest City in America. I know, the people who live there can't feel very happy about that!

Here's the whole top 10:

St. Petersburg, FL

Detroit, MI

Memphis, TN

Tampa, FL

Louisville, KY

St. Louis, MO

Birmingham, AL

Miami, FL

Reno, NV

Las Vegas, NV

Perhaps the sad people living in these cities will cheer up now that their misery has been validated. If not, and they want to make a change for the cheerier, they could always move to one of the cities on Men's Health's related list of "blues-proof" cities. Top of that list? Honolulu, Hawaii. Aloha, happiness!

Do you think the city you live in can affect your mood?

 

Image via kthypryn/Flickr