Stressed? Here’s Amarillo’s Top Stressors, & It’s Not The Crime.

So a study recently came out that Amarillo was the fourth most violent city in Texas. We definitely hear about a lot of violent crime within the city, and it's a cause for concern no doubt.

That crime seems to be limited (for the most part) to the corridors of I-27 and I-40, as well as select neighborhoods, so it's not like it's widespread and happening everywhere. That's why the crime rate in Amarillo doesn't seem to be even close to the main concern of residents of the city.

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Ok let me rephrase that, we ARE concerned about the violent crime rate in the city, but it's not close to our top concern. So if that isn't what keeps us up at night, what is it? How about stress, work, finances, and childcare.

Look, we're all concerned about that, right? The rate of inflation is absolutely crazy right now. Gas is skyrocketing again, the cost of items in the grocery store continues to rise, and we aren't getting raises at work.

WalletHub has compared 182 cities in the country against each other to determine what these cities' stress levels are driven by. There were four major categories they used in this study, and each one had sub-categories within them. The main categories were work stress, financial stress, family stress, and health & safety stress.

So how does this play into the fact that we're the fourth most violent city in Texas and us not staying up at night worried about it? Well, it was our lowest-ranked stressor as we checked in at 147th out of those 182 cities regarding health and safety stressors. In other words, it's one of the last things we even think about letting ourselves stress over.

WORK STRESS

This one was the highest stressor in Amarillo checking in at 24th on the list across the nation and fifth overall in Texas. So what constitutes work stress? According to the WalletHub survey, it's things like average weekly work hours, job security and satisfaction, and income growth among other things.

All of these are valid concerns for everyone. As the costs of everything grow, companies have to be able to save money too. That leads to layoffs like AT&T here is going through. Hourly employees start working as many hours as they possibly can to try and make more money to survive, and those on salary have to work longer to pick up the tasks that get left behind by employees no longer with a company and do it for no extra money.

FAMILY STRESS

This was our second-highest-ranked stressor in Amarillo, but it wasn't nearly as high as our work stress. We checked in at number 70 in the country for this one, and it includes things such as separation and divorce rates, availability of childcare workers, and the costs associated with childcare.

I can understand the separation and divorce thing. As people work longer hours, they see their spouse less and less, and when they do see each other, they're probably talking about life issues that never allow a person the chance to breathe. Those longer hours require longer hours of the kids needing care, and those childcare workers are burning out just like we are from the long hours.

FINANCIAL STRESS

We came in at number 97 on the list for the country here, and truthfully it surprised me a little bit. While I agree and understand that Amarillo is one of the lower-cost cities to live in here in Texas, it's still expensive. Still, it seems people in Amarillo for the most part are making enough money to support their household without much issue.

Factors included in the financial stress category included median household income, households behind on bills in the past 12 months, food insecurity, and housing affordability.

All in all, crime and health issues are the least of our worries and stress. We're just trying to get through a normal workday and not worry about things getting bad at home. You can view the complete WalletHub survey here.