Businessweek: Jacksonville #6 UNhappiest City in America

[Dog Walker]

Money won't buy happiness, but the lack of it can sure bring unhappiness.

[Sportmotor]

I don't think you will see this in the Chamber's literature:

Jacksonville, Fla.

Overall rank: 6
Depression rank: 2
Suicide rank: 9
Crime (property and violent) rank: 23
Divorce rate rank: 7
Cloudy days: 144
Unemployment rate (December 2008): 7.6%

*Editor's Note: BusinessWeek.com ranked 50 of the largest metros based on a variety of factors including depression rates, suicide rates, divorce rates, crime, unemployment, population loss, job loss, weather, and green space. The most heavily weighted factors were the depression, suicide, jobs (unemployment and job loss), and crime rates.  The depression rate is based on survey and aggregated insurance reporting information at time of discharge, doctor's office visits, and insurance process filings. The suicide rate is for 2004 and comes from The 2007 Big Cities Health Inventory‚Ã,,ù compiled by the National Assembly of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO). The crime risk indexes for property and crime used for the scoring were based on FBI crime reporting for the seven most-recent available years. Divorce rates and 2009 population change come from the U.S. Census. The number of cloudy days came from the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.

Article at:  http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/feb2009/bw20090226_526384.htm

I can see this

[JaguarReign]

 Socially, Jacksonville is too conservative.  We are not a fun city.  It also seems that people get married and/or have kids way too early in this city, not giving young folks enough time or opportunity to experience freedom from responsibility (hence leading to future regret and possibly higher divorce rates).

While I think as a whole this list is crap ... you hit on something here I've been thinking for a long time. I don't want to seem like I'm attacking anyone’s views/values, but it does seem as if the conservative (i.e. Baptist) "no sex till you're married" pushes people to get married very young before they really know who they are. (also when I say "pushes" I mean that guys will do anything for sex, even get married, especially young guys) Then add to that ignorance about birth control and you end up with kids very young on top of that. It just seems like a cocktail for a miserable life.

I'm not saying that everyone who marries young or waits until marriage is miserable, I'm just saying that I didn't know what I wanted from like if I wanted kids or even who I was at 18-25 years old and that seems to be when they are getting hitched ant popping out kids like it's going out of style.

The other end of the spectrum seems to be the "hood rat/trailer trash" who has children out of wedlock at a very young age (16-19) and never finishes their education. This seems to be equally if not more miserable. However I'm not sure these folks are intelligent enough to be miserable in their situation. (this group describes most of my extended family FWIW)

I think political and religious leaning have little to do with the happiness of a city because #1 on this list is Portland, probably the most liberal and open city in America outside of San Francisco.

[JaguarReign]

TUFSU, Ive lived all over the world, and I havent really noticed that.

Which cities have you noticed this to be most true of that youve lived in?

Even in Honolulu, where I'm from, which is usually voted has having the highest quality of life of any American city, contains numbers of people who want to leave. I have never lived in a place where everybody was happy and, maybe I'm wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if you hang around a number of cynical and negative people.