The Most Stressed State in America? Alaska. And It’s Not Even Close.
Friday, October 31, 2025.
In a country that ranks everything — burgers, beaches, even breakups — it was only a matter of time before someone ranked who’s the most miserable.
According to a nationwide study by Anidjar & Levine (2025), Alaska takes the crown as America’s most stressed state.
Congratulations to the Last Frontier: you’ve officially become first in fight-or-flight.
Stress, it turns out, may be the last affordable pastime in America. We export technology, import anxiety, and call the result productivity.
Welcome to the Stress Olympics
Alaska scored an astonishing 84.5 on the firm’s composite stress index — more than three times higher than my home state of Massachusetts, the least-stressed state, which came in at a relatively serene 24.9.
The reasons read like the side effects of modern life: a suicide rate of 28.15 per 100,000 (triple the national average), a cost of living 25% higher than the rest of the country, and the kind of isolation where even your therapist needs a bush plane.
“High-stress environments show up in our caseload,” said senior partner Marc Anidjar, whose law firm apparently doubles as a public mental health clinic. He isn’t wrong: where financial strain, poor housing, and unsafe working conditions collide, accident and injury claims soar.
The law follows the stress — and the stress follows the rent.
When Geography Becomes Destiny
The data confirm what we’ve all suspected: stress isn’t evenly distributed; it’s topographical.
New Mexico (81.6) and Louisiana (70.2) trail Alaska in the stress parade. In New Mexico, crime and poverty hum like background noise. In Louisiana, roughly nine percent of residents live in extreme poverty, making every broken taillight an existential crisis.
Meanwhile, Massachusetts enjoys a different kind of tension — stress as a lifestyle accessory.
The Bay State has the lowest suicide rate in the nation (8.58 per 100,000), the highest safety rating, and enviable access to mental health care.
The catch? A cost-of-living index of 141.2.
You can get excellent therapy in Boston — if you can afford parking near the therapist. That’s why this Massachusetts therapist has been using Zoom way before it was COVID chic to do so.
New Jersey and New Hampshire join Massachusetts in America’s calm corner. Both have low poverty, low suicide rates, and clean environments — what psychologists call protective factors and the rest of us call money and infrastructure.
The Most and Least Stressed States
The researchers didn’t stop at Alaska’s existential exhaustion. They ranked all fifty states by stress score.
Top Ten Most Stressed States (2025)
Alaska – 84.48
New Mexico – 81.62
Louisiana – 70.22
Nevada – 70.20
Oregon – 69.40
Arizona – 64.90
Kentucky – 64.08
Arkansas – 63.68
Washington – 62.86
Hawaii – 62.46
Top Ten Least Stressed States (2025)
Massachusetts – 24.90
New Jersey – 25.72
New Hampshire – 26.12
Virginia – 32.24
Iowa – 33.46
Connecticut – 34.28
Minnesota – 34.70
Delaware – 35.92
Maryland – 36.32
Illinois – 37.56
The pattern is depressingly simple: stress thrives in isolation and scarcity, and fades where people can afford help — or at least a working furnace.
The Human Cost of the Last Frontier
In Alaska, someone is deciding whether to fill the oil tank or the fridge. In Massachusetts, someone else is deciding between a Peloton and a second therapist. I guess both are coping strategies.
Harsh winters, limited daylight, scarce healthcare, and staggering grocery prices make daily life in Alaska an endurance sport. The cost of isolation isn’t just emotional — it’s economic.
When milk costs seven dollars a gallon and the nearest psychiatrist is two flights away, stress isn’t a diagnosis; it’s the climate.
Mental illness already affects one in five American adults (National Institute of Mental Health, 2023). Add isolation and a shortage of providers, and you get a paradox: the places that need help most tragically can’t reach it.
The Bigger Picture: Class and Coping
It’s tempting to turn this into another red-versus-blue morality play, but stress cuts deeper. It’s not ideology — it’s infrastructure.
Wealthier, more densely populated states can build safety nets: reliable transit, accessible therapy and health care, legal aid. Poorer or more rural states rely on rugged individualism, which is admirable until your appendix bursts.
What these maps really show isn’t stress; it’s isolation — not just the Alaskan kind, but the emotional kind that comes from living in a country where community is optional and self-reliance is mandatory.
America sells independence like a vitamin and then wonders why everyone’s so tired.
When you step back, the American stress map looks a lot like the American income map.
FAQ
Why is Alaska so stressed?
Because living in Alaska can feel like a long, expensive snow-globe simulation of survival. With limited daylight, scarce medical access, and costs roughly 25% above the national average, stress compounds faster than daylight disappears.
Which states have the lowest stress levels?
The calmest trio are Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New Hampshire — states with strong safety nets, low suicide rates, and fewer people living in extreme poverty.
How was the stress score calculated?
Researchers averaged five factors: safety, suicide rate, cost of living, environmental quality, and the percentage of residents living in extreme poverty. The higher the number, the higher the stress.
Does money really buy peace of mind?
Not exactly, but it buys options. Access to therapy, safer neighborhoods, and decent healthcare don’t erase stress — they soften it.
Are legal resources really part of stress research?
Yes. The authors argue that when people can’t access medical or legal help, small problems tend to become crises. In that sense, stress is both a health issue and a civil-rights issue.
Chronic stress isn’t just personal — it’s ecological. The data mirrors what I see in couples therapy every week: when people feel unsupported by their environment, they turn on each other instead of the system that’s grinding them down like a tree stump.
Final Thoughts
If you live in Alaska, you deserve sympathy, not statistics.
Life in the north comes with beauty that takes your breath away — and a cost of living which does essentially the same.
If you live in Massachusetts, remember that serenity is a luxury item too.
Wherever you are, the best antidote to stress isn’t relocation — it’s connection. Hug your dog, your partner, your friend, or whoever’s nearest and still willing.
It’s cheaper than therapy and, on most days, just as effective.
Be Well, Stay Kind, and Godspeed.
REFERENCES:
Anidjar & Levine. (2025). America’s Most Stressed States 2025: Stress Levels by Safety, Cost of Living, and Health Access. Retrieved from https://www.anidjarlevine.com
National Institute of Mental Health. (2023). Mental Illness. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from https://www.nimh.nih.gov
American Psychological Association. (2023). Stress in America: The State of Our Nation. Washington, D.C.: APA.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2024). Poverty in the United States: 2024. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023). Suicide Mortality by State. National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov