Scranton ranked 4th most overindulgent city in the United States by credit website
Fittingly released just days after Scranton’s biggest drinking holiday, the annual St. Patrick’s Parade, badcredit.org ranked the Electric City as the fourth most overindulgent metropolitan area in the United States.
Using data from the U.S. Center for Disease Control’s most recent “Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System” survey and the 2014 “State of Credit” report from credit-reporting bureau Experian, they used four factors to analyze 105 metropolitan areas:
- Percentage of citizens considered “obese” (those with a body mass index greater than 30)
- Percentage of citizens considered “heavy drinkers” (adult men having more than two drinks per day and adult women having more than one drink per day)
- Percentage of citizens who smoke every day
- Average debt per consumer (excluding mortgages)
Only Lafayette, Louisiana; Great Falls, Montana; and Mobile, Alabama beat Scranton on the list. Here’s what Bad Credit had to say about the city:
- Citizens considered “obese:” 31.9%
- Citizens claiming to be “heavy drinkers:” 7.8%
- Citizens who smoke every day: 21.5%
- Average consumer debt: $28,674
“The residents of Scranton, Pennsylvania aren’t the only ones with a debt problem. According to the state’s Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, the city (and many of its neighbors) are due to go bankrupt in the next two to four years.”
Scranton has been called “the armpit of Pennsylvania,” ranked as one of the worst and most miserable places to live, and mocked for its native accent by various other websites and media over the years. Whether or not these assessments have any truth to them is up for debate, as the BBC contested these reports back in December, but Bad Credit does at least have some statistics to back up their claim.
Is Scranton really this overindulgent, or are there other factors that Bad Credit isn’t taking into account? Let us know what you think in the comments or on social media.
Lead photo by Sophia Kowalczyk
