For a time of peace and goodwill toward our fellow people, we sure do enjoy a lot of “sins” during the holidays.
We make lists of stuff we want and give them to our family. We spend a lot of money buying other people gifts, often going into debt. We covet our neighbors’ holiday displays, and some of us even steal the packages off their porches.
And we eat a lot. And we drink a lot. Then we eat and drink some more.
Greed, excess, jealousy and hatred play out in most cities alongside joy, gratitude, generosity and love.
To determine 2021′s most sinful cities in America, the financial website WalletHub compared 182 cities — including the 150 most populated in the United States, plus at least two of the most populated in each state — across seven key dimensions: anger and hatred, jealousy, excesses and vices, greed, lust, vanity and laziness.
It then examined those dimensions using 37 relevant metrics, each graded on a 100 point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest level of sinfulness.
When the points were tallied, Las Vegas retained its title of “Sin City,” with a score of 60.98.
Las Vegas was followed by St. Louis, Houston, Los Angeles and Denver, in that order.
Atlanta finished No. 7 overall, with a score of 49.22.
The good news about our city is we ranked middle of the pack for excesses and vices at No. 85, and were No. 179 out of 182 for greed. Our lack of greed seems to be a Georgia thing, because the state’s other two cities, Augusta and Columbus, finished right behind us at No. 180 and No. 181, respetively.
The bad news is we’re jealous (fourth) and vain (ninth). Atlanta finished No. 35 for anger and hatred, and No. 63 for laziness.
And we ranked No. 5 nationwide for lust.
According to Randall M. Kessler, author of “Divorce, Protect Yourself,” and a trial professor at Emory Law School, cheating within marriage is becoming more common over time.
“The longer a relationship, it seems the greater the temptation. But in my observation as a divorce lawyer, adultery is not limited to long-term marriages,” Kessler told WalletHub. “And if the question was ‘over time’ meaning since when I started practicing in the 1980s, I think the answer is no. Cheating has always been an issue. It might be easier in some ways now to connect with paramours on social media, etc., but the human desire to cheat remains pretty constant in our observation.”
In addition, we tied with Las Vegas; Portland, Oregon; and Tampa for the most adult entertainment establishments per capita.
Columbus (No. 114) and Augusta (No. 133) were less sinful overall, but they still had their vices.
Columbus ranked No. 21 for jealousy, and Augusta made it into the top 50 in two categories: No. 49 for exesses and vices, and No. 36 for laziness.
If you would like to see how other cities ranked, you can check out the full analysis on wallethub.com.
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