Pittsburgh has one of the highest suicide rates in the country

[MathmanMathman]

I did some more checking of the data. Pittsburgh is 15.2, #16 Milwaukee 14.2, #17 Oklahoma City 14.1, #18 Atlanta 13.8, #19 Austin 13.6, #20 Cincinnati 13.3, #21 Charlotte 13.2. Cleveland is #27 12.2. Seattle is tied with Cleveland but is more similar to #12 Portland (15.1 vs 12.2).

The cheeriest cities are Boston 4.2, DC 5.6, Baltimore 5.6, NYC 6.0, Detroit 6.1, Chicago 6.3, and LA 7.1. Philly is somewhere in between at 10.7. Columbus is 10.8.

There doesn't seem to be a clear pattern other than it helps to be a really big city. And they don't make a point of it being an MSA but a city. For things like this, I think the MSA is a better measure or at least the Urban Area.

[west seattle gal]

Don't see Seattle in the top 15, so that poll must be flawed.

[Sealtite]

Originally Posted by Hopes

That can't be it. MOST of the cities on that list are super sunny.

Phoenix, Ariz
Fresno, Calif
Wichita, Kan
Jacksonville, Fla
Denver, Colo
Miami, Fla
Mesa, Ariz
Albuquerque, N.M.
Sacramento, Calif
Tucson, Ariz.
Colorado Springs, Colo
Las Vegas, Nev.

All very sunny cities! That's 12 out of the 15 that are sunny!

What a lot of those places make up for in sunshine, they lose in substance. Phoenix is a soulless tract-plan nightmare in the middle of the desert. Bright, sunny skies can't cover up the fact that you'd get lost in your own neighborhood, and that you've got a front yard consists of some rocks, sand, and a cactus. A lot of sunbelt cities are very soulless, I've found. Sunshine is great....but it doesn't "make or break" a place.

We're fortunate to have chosen San Diego county, because at least this place has some variety and substance. I find it to be very similar in a lot of ways to Pittsburgh, minus the weather of course. There's a town just up the road from me called Fallbrook, and it was actually founded by Pennsylvania natives and named after their former homestead because it bore such a resemblance. However.....

Travel a half an hour north into Riverside county, and the scene changes drastically. Nothing but ugly, lifeless tract plans complete with guard shacks and either a Prius or a black Lexus sitting in each and every driveway. Just looking at it all is depressing, not to mention the fact that people up there (and in Orange county for that matter) seem to stick out like a sore thumb when they come down here. They all seem like miserable human beings, and I would be too if I had to live up there in a McMansion box surrounded by a bunch of other McMansion boxes that looked identical to mine....in the middle of the desert. Hell, I'd probably kill myself.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by west seattle gal

Don't see Seattle in the top 15, so that poll must be flawed.

Wasn't it #1 for decades?