Brussels among world's most stressful cities, study claims

Antwerp has performed better than Brussels in a new ranking of the world's least stressful cities, which examined "the overall mental health" of 150 cities using criteria ranging from pollution and unemployment to the weather.

German cities scored the best, with Stuttgart named the least stressed-out city to live and Hannover and Munich also making the top five. Luxembourg City came second.

Antwerp appears mid-table, ranked 69th out of 150 world cities. It scored well for physical health, race equality and green spaces, but poorly for light pollution and hours of sunlight.

Brussels was near the bottom of the league table, 120th out of 150 and on a par with Rio de Janeiro and Athens. Its best scores were in physical health and race equality. Brussels scored badly for unemployment and light pollution.

The study by tech start-up Zipjet took into account 17 criteria, including population density, quality of public transport, security perception, unemployment, debt per capita and gender equality.

"Mental health problems are on the rise worldwide, with stress being a trigger and contributing factor towards this increase," said Zipjet managing director Florian Färber.

Baghdad, Kabul, Lagos, Cairo and Dakar were the most stressful cities in the world to live, according to the study.