America’s Craziest Cities

The Daily Beast ranked America’s craziest cities (the 57 largest metropolitan areas) based on a hodgepodge of criteria: psychiatrists per capita, stress, eccentricity, and drinking levels.

While party cities like Las Vegas, New York City, and New Orleans showed up in the top 10, none were the craziest city of all. The honor of America’s craziest city went to a city in America’s heartland not necessarily renowned for its parties: Cincinnati, Ohio. Other non-spring-break destinations, such as Providence and Milwaukee, also showed up high on the list.

And (drumroll please), the top 10 craziest cities in America are:

1.Cincinnati
Psychiatrists per capita: 31 out of 57
Stress: 5 out of 57
Eccentricity: 12 out of 57
Drinking: 17 (tie) out of 57

2.San Francisco
Psychiatrists per capita: 1
Stress: 57
Eccentricity: 2
Drinking: 11 (tie)

3.Providence
Psychiatrists per capita: 6
Stress: 38
Eccentricity: 21
Drinking: 7

4. Milwaukee
Psychiatrists per capita: 10
Stress: 33 (tie)
Eccentricity: 29
Drinking: 1 (tie)

5. Las Vegas
Psychiatrists per capita: 55
Stress: 9
Eccentricity: 9
Drinking: 1 (tie)

6. Philadelphia
Psychiatrists per capita: 30
Stress: 2 (tie)
Eccentricity: 16
Drinking: 27

7. New York City
Psychiatrists per capita: 4
Stress: 19
Eccentricity: 4
Drinking: 49 (tie)

8. Tucson
Psychiatrists per capita: 21
Stress: 17
Eccentricity: 35
Drinking: 4

9. San Antonio
Psychiatrists per capita: 42
Stress: 8
Eccentricity: 23
Drinking: 9

10. New Orleans
Psychiatrists per capita: 3
Stress: 30
Eccentricity: 1
Drinking: 49 (tie)

For the psychiatrists per capita score, The Daily Beast based its methodology on the number of shrinks to fill the therapy demand person, using data from the Census and Citysearch.com (the lower the score, the more psychiatrists per capita). They based the stress ranking on a 2008 national survey by Gallup-Healthways and the drinking rating on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Eccentricity was the most subjective of the criteria, based off of the knowledge of a travel writer about how “crazy, wacky, and weird” each city is.