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You know that tight feeling in your chest when you start a new job? That’s stress.

And there are certain places in South Carolina that have more to stress out about then just their first day at work.

There are things like dealing with ever-longer commutes, working longer and longer hours, and just trying to find a job in the first place. But which places in South Carolina take being stressed to the next level?

It turns out the good people of Marion have earned the dubious distinction of being the most stressed out place in South Carolina. The city is at the top of the pack of the 10 most stressed out places in the Palmetto State:

Read on to see why these places in South Carolina could use a Xanax.

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How We Measured Stress In South Carolina (Without Stressing Out)

In order to measure stress, we selected a set of six criteria that reflect its root causes for most people and used them to look at the 62 places in South Carolina with a population over 5,000 according to the 2010-2014 American Community Survey:

Percentage of population with a long commute (over 30 minutes) Unemployment Rate Hours worked Population density Percentage of income spent on rent Percentage of population without health insurance

The higher any of these are, the more stressed the people of the place are.

Our data is from the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey for 2010-2014.

We ranked each place from 1 to 62 (with one being the most stressed side of the scale) in the six individual criteria. These ranks were then averaged into a Stress Score, the lowest of which was the most stressed out place in the Palmetto State.

Below, we’ll take a look at the standout stress stats for each top 10 most stressed places, and wrap the whole thing up with a detailed ranking of all 62 places we analyzed.

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1. Marion



Population: 6,833 People With High Rent: 60.2%

People With Long Commute: 39.3%

People Without Insurance: 17.2%

2. Moncks Corner



Population: 8,711 People With High Rent: 49.6%

People With Long Commute: 42.8%

People Without Insurance: 26.4%

3. Clover



Population: 5,321 People With High Rent: 62.0%

People With Long Commute: 45.7%

People Without Insurance: 14.5%

4. Chester

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 5,543People With High Rent: 45.9%

People With Long Commute: 43.7%

People Without Insurance: 16.3%

5. Lake City

Source: Flickr

Population: 6,720People With High Rent: 52.9%

People With Long Commute: 33.1%

People Without Insurance: 15.1%

6. Greenwood

Source: Flickr

Population: 23,296People With High Rent: 59.6%

People With Long Commute: 21.6%

People Without Insurance: 20.0%

7. Batesburg-Leesville



Population: 5,242 People With High Rent: 70.6%

People With Long Commute: 37.1%

People Without Insurance: 14.4%

8. North Charleston

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 102,143People With High Rent: 55.0%

People With Long Commute: 26.4%

People Without Insurance: 22.1%

9. Summerville

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 44,717People With High Rent: 50.8%

People With Long Commute: 42.7%

People Without Insurance: 13.3%

10. Lancaster

Source: Wikipedia

Population: 8,801People With High Rent: 46.1%

People With Long Commute: 35.3%

People Without Insurance: 19.0%

Detailed List Of Stressed Places In South Carolina