Feeling stressed? Well, apparently you shouldn’t. According to new research from the leadership development firm Elevate Leadership, Arlington is the 14th least stressed city in the nation.
To calculate its rankings, Elevate created indices measuring common stressors, including employment, finances, family life, health care and crime rates. It then analyzed thousands of data points for the country’s 100 most populous cities.
“The results reflect where residents may face the greatest daily pressures, and where city conditions may make it easier to maintain stability and quality of life,” explains the San Francisco-based firm, which released its findings last month.
It’s food for thought. Arlingtonians tend to be competitive and ambitious folks (qualities that no doubt contribute to stress), but the study shows a county that is largely healthy and wealthy, and whose residents, on average, don’t face the same financial, marital and healthcare stresses as people living in other parts of the country.
What Stands Out
Overall, Arlington scored a 65 and a grade of A- in Elevate’s study. (The No. 1 least stressed city—Omaha, Nebraska—scored a 74.9 and an A+.) By category, Arlington received the highest scores on metrics relating to employment, including a score of 96 for unemployment and a 99 for labor force participation. To calculate the latter metric, Elevate divided the number of employed workers, including part-time and gig workers, by the total size of the eligible labor force in each city.
The study crunched demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent American Community Survey, released in 2024. It’s worth noting that those numbers predate the Department of Government Efficiency’s cost-cutting efforts, which began in January 2025. In the D.C. area, federal employment subsequently fell by 54,000 workers. DOGE’s full impact on the DMV is still TBD.
Currently, Arlington County’s unemployment rate stands at 2.8%, according to the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement. That’s better than the national rate, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics put at 4.2% in June.
More Findings
To arrive at its rankings, Elevate also considered factors such as median household income and average commute times. Unsurprisingly, Arlington’s median household income received a high score of 97. (Census data puts it at $142,114.)
In the category of work/life balance, Arlington scored a mediocre 68, which Elevate calculated using data from another of its studies, The Best Cities for Work-Life Balance in 2026, conducted in January. Workaholism is a known local phenomenon, as confirmed by other research studies, including a 2024 ranking by CoworkingCafe that put Arlington at the top of a list of America’s hardest-working cities.
In the Elevate study, the municipalities earning the highest scores for work/life balance were Lincoln, Nebraska (with a score of 99); Omaha (90); and Madison, Wisconsin (98), which ranked No. 3. overall.
Arlington’s high cost of living is a significant factor on the stress-o-meter. (Payscale, a provider of compensation intelligence tools, estimates that the cost of living here is 36% higher than the national average.) Arlington’s single-digit score of 9 for affordability was among the lowest of all 100 cities in the Elevate study. New York City scored a 4, Detroit got a 2 and Los Angeles came in with 8.
Other factors anchoring Arlington’s place in Elevate’s rankings included the county’s relatively low crime and divorce and separation rates.
Rankings and More Rankings
Arlington isn’t just hard working. It’s also the country’s second most educated city and has been named America’s fittest city for nine years in a row. Some might say it’s a town of high achievers and competitive types who thrive on stress.
But according to a July 6 study by WalletHub, Arlington’s prevailing stressors pale in comparison to other locales. Arlington did not make WalletHub’s list of the most stressed cities in America, although neighboring Washington, D.C. was ranked 33rd and Baltimore came in at No. 2.
Baltimore also ranked high on Elevate’s assessment of the nation’s most stressed-out cities, coming in at No. 6 with a grade of C-minus. (The top three were Newark, New Jersey; Hialeah, Florida; and the ironically named Paradise, Nevada.) D.C. proper ranked 60th on that list with a grade of B-minus.
Arlington was also noticeably absent from a list of the most stressful places to be a parent released last month by AMFM, a mental health organization, although McLean’s 22101 ZIP code was No. 32 on that list.
In May, the online gaming platform Solitaire Bliss declared the DMV (including Arlington) the third most relaxed metro area in America. Its rankings were formulated using data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factors survey, as well as statistics from Operation Hope, the Federal Reserve System, American Time Use Survey, Walk Score, ParkScore Index and Neighborhood Scout. Abundant green space (e.g., access to parks) and work/life balance were factors in that analysis.
The bottom line? Maybe Arlingtonians know how to work hard and play hard.
, but when it comes to money and health care worries, other places have it worse.){kind=link}