City life promises opportunity, diversity and career growth, but it can also bring daily pressures that slowly add up. Long commutes, rising grocery bills, concerns about crime, difficulty accessing healthcare and polluted air can shape how stressful life feels in a major urban centre.
A new global index by Remitly analysed more than 170 cities worldwide to identify which may be the most stressful places to live today. The study evaluated five measurable factors: the average time to travel 10 kilometres (data from TomTom), cost of living index, healthcare index and crime index (from Numbeo), and average annual pollution levels (from IQAir). Each city was given a stress score out of 10, with higher scores indicating greater overall strain.
Here are the 10 most stressful cities in the world, according to the index.