With more than a third of Americans reporting that the COVID-19 pandemic has hurt their mental health, social distancing has proved to be just as stressful as it is necessary.
The personal-finance website WalletHub released its report on the States Where Social Distancing Is Most Difficult.
According to the study, Virginia is listed as the 8th most difficult state with North Carolina in 15th.
To identify where social distancing is the hardest, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 13 key metrics. The data set ranges from whether residents have supportive relationships to how much consumers spent on social activities before COVID-19.
A Social Distancing Survey was also released, which asked a range of questions from how social distancing makes Americans feel to what protective clothing they wear and how often they go outside.
Difficulty of Social Distancing in Virginia (1=Most Difficult, 25=Avg.):
- 16th – Share of Population Physically Active
- 1st – Share of Consumer Expenditures Related to Social Activities (pre-COVID-19)
- 23rd – Travel & Tourism Consumer Spending per Capita
- 22nd – Volunteer Rate
Here are the top 10 states where self-isolating is most difficult, according to the study.
| Overall Rank | State | Total Score | ‘Social Environment’ Rank | ‘Time Spent on Social Activities’ Rank | ‘Money Spent on Social Activities’ Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Utah | 74.53 | 1 | 2 | 12 |
| 2 | New Hampshire | 63.29 | 3 | 3 | 23 |
| 3 | Montana | 62.84 | 6 | 11 | 8 |
| 4 | Colorado | 60.41 | 16 | 7 | 5 |
| 5 | Alaska | 58.41 | 2 | 48 | 15 |
| 6 | Massachusetts | 57.35 | 18 | 8 | 10 |
| 7 | Wyoming | 56.77 | 8 | 44 | 6 |
| 8 | Virginia | 56.25 | 17 | 27 | 2 |
| 9 | Idaho | 56.22 | 12 | 5 | 34 |
| 10 | South Dakota | 56.15 | 10 | 16 | 27 |
Social Distancing Survey Findings
- Online shopping is a popular stress reliever: 36 million Americans use online shopping as their number one way to cope with social distancing.
- Nearly half the population still ventures outside: 48 percent of Americans go outside at least once a day while self-quarantining.
- Women worry more: Women are 40 percent more likely to feel anxious than men due to social distancing.
- People want to see family most: 34 percent of Americans are most looking forward to seeing family once this is over, more than the amount that are most excited to see friends or go out to eat.
- Most Americans use masks: 60 percent of Americans are now wearing face masks due to the coronavirus.
- Social distancing provides an opportunity to build skills: Almost 29 million Americans are using the social distancing time to learn something new.
The complete survey results can be found at this link.
