Study Says Metro Detroiters Likely Won't Keep Resolutions

METRO DETROIT, MI — New Year’s resolutions are easy to make, but what are your chances of actually keeping them in 2020 while living in Metro Detroit?

The personal finance website WalletHub recently released its “2020’s Best & Worst Cities For Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions” rankings.

Metro Detroit ranked 179th overall among cities to help you follow through on your New Year’s resolutions. That’s out of 182 cities. Not very optimistic.

Here’s the breakdown the study gave:

• Health Resolutions: 171
• Financial Resolutions: 137
• School & Work Resolutions: 180
• Bad-Habit Resolutions: 178
• Relationship Resolutions: 101

WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities across 57 key indicators of favorable conditions for achieving one’s New Year's goals, including the access to exercise opportunities, the debt-to-income ratio for residents and the unemployment rate.

Each relevant metric was then listed with its corresponding weight, and the cities were subsequently graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the best possible urban environment for keeping one’s New Year’s resolutions.

Here are some important highlights from the report.

San Diego, California, ranked as the No. 1 city in the nation for keeping your New Year’s resolutions, according to WalletHub, followed by Scottsdale, Arizona, and San Francisco, California.

The worst U.S. city in which to keep a New Year’s resolution? That weak-willed honor went to Gulfport, Mississippi.

Keeping resolutions can be difficult “because the goals aren’t specific, the ability or resources are missing, commitment to the goal is absent, and because they don’t monitor their progress to see success,” said Verlin Hinsz, a professor of psychology at North Dakota State University who was referenced in the WalletHub report.

Here are the top 15 cities in the United States for keeping your New Year’s resolutions in 2020.

1. San Diego, California: 68.00
2. Scottsdale, Arizona: 67.93
3. San Francisco, California: 67.35
4. Seattle, Washington: 67.22
5. San Jose, California: 66.20
6. Irvine, California: 65.84
7. Austin, Texas: 64.95
8. Plano, Texas: 64.02
9. Salt Lake City, Utah: 63.98
10. Fremont, California: 63.44
11. Atlanta, Georgia: 63.40
12. Huntington Beach, California: 63.33
13. Overland Park, Kansas: 63.14
14. Portland, Oregon: 62.96
15. Raleigh, North Carolina: 62.58

The full report in available on WalletHub.