Oceanside and Carlsbad ranked among most stressful cities in California

OCEANSIDE — Oceanside has recently been ranked the second most stressful California city to live in by CreditDonkey, a data-driven analysis website. Carlsbad was not too far behind, ranking ninth on the list.

The rankings were calculated based on commute time, average hours worked per week, percentage of divorcees, the odds of being a crime victim and percentage of income spent on housing.

Oceanside’s divorce rate is higher than average in California, with 9.3 percent of men and 13.2 percent of women having been divorced, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s higher than the state’s average, with 8 percent of men and 11 percent of women divorced in California.

Dr. Mina Sirovy, who is a marriage and family therapist in Oceanside, attributes the higher divorce rate to the military in Oceanside.

“The men are getting deployed and women are having a hard time coping alone,” said Sirovy.

She also said that many Hispanic women are getting better jobs than their husbands, which creates marital strain.

Another factor that contributed to Oceanside’s stress rating was that residents on average spend close to 30 percent of their income on housing. Considering they work 38.9 hours a week on average, and 27.7 minutes commuting to their jobs, the stress factor adds up.

Compared to the other stressful cities on the list, Oceanside’s crime rate wasn’t high. Residents are less than one percent likely to be the victim of a violent crime.

Carlsbad also has a low crime rate. Residents have a 0.2 percent chance of being the victim of a violent crime.

Unfortunately, it still wound up on the list, largely because of a long commute time, clocking in at close to 29 minutes. Carlsbad commuters on average spend over 250 hours a year getting to and from work. Weekly, they average 39.1 hours working and have a similar divorce rate to Oceanside.

About 13 percent of Carlsbad women have been divorced and a little over 10 percent of men.

CreditDonkey ranked the city north of L.A., Lancaster, as the most stressful California city to live in. Other cities that made the list were Palmdale (ranked fifth), L.A. (ranked tenth) and Inglewood (ranked third).

The study didn’t include unemployment rates in the ranking, which could have changed things. Carlsbad and Oceanside, both have lower unemployment than California’s average of 11.4 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2012, Carlsbad had an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent and Oceanside’s rate was 8.6 percent.