Detroit, Chicago or Cleveland: Which City is More Sinful?
It's time to get sinful. October brings out the dark and drab, the evil lurking around every corner with Halloween just around the corner.
Sure, the holiday is more about fun costumes and candy, but we can exaggerate a bit, right? After all, a sinful city is known more for its party atmosphere. That's why no city can outdo Sin City itself, Las Vegas, Nevada. But if you analyze each of America's biggest cities by how much they indulge in the seven deadly sins, you'll be surprised which cities get pretty close to the strip in the desert.
Seeing as our digital market here in Michigan extends to Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, I thought it'd be fun to see which of the big cities clings to its vices more. Indianapolis was ranked at a paltry 65 of 182 American cities, so we won't beat up on them too much.
However, the race between Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland was much closer. WalletHub conducted a study measuring each city on how Angry, Jealous, Gluttonous, Greedy, Lustful, Vane and Lazy they are based on crime, entertainment and health statistics.
Let's start with last place among the three, Detroit. The Motor City ranked 27th in the country for its sinfulness, most notably for its anger and gluttony. Having one of the highest violent crime rates in the country, Detroit was the third-most angry city in America according to the study, the highest ranking of any sin for the three cities. Detroit was also ranked No. 7 for its gluttony and No. 9 for its laziness.
Detroit would have ranked even higher with a bit more jealousy (ranked 94), greed (147) and vanity (138). No joke, Detroit ranked No.179 in the study for how few tanning beds the city has.
Taking second place is Cleveland. The Rock 'n' Roll Capital of the World just missed the top 10, coming in at No. 11. Cleveland is a lot like Detroit for its masochism amongst its sports fans, but how do they indulge in their sins? Very similar to Detroit.
Cleveland was ranked No. 7 for anger, No. 8 for gluttony, and No. 12 for laziness. While all of those are behind Detroit in those respective categories, Cleveland is much more balanced with its sins, with the exception of greed, which was ranked 152, the lowest sin score of our three cities. Ohio's land on Lake Erie ranked 17th for jealousy, 39 in lust and 33 in vanity.
That just leaves Chicago, the most Sinful of the Great Lake big cities, the No. 8 most sinful city in America. Chicago was much more balanced in its sins, not indulging in any one significantly more than the others. That said, the Windy City is a vane bunch, ranking No. 7 in the country.
Chicago also scored high marks for its anger (16), jealousy (13) and lust (15)High marks in those four sins gave Chicago the edge to overcome its healthy lifestyle (not-gluttonous, ranking 109th) and righteous gambling decisions. (not-greedy, ranking 90th).