America's Most Sinful Cities

Forbes ^ | 02.14.08

[Between the Lines]

They say geography is destiny, but perhaps it is damnation as well.

We have unveiled the American city that has fallen the farthest from grace in each of the seven deadly sins ( lust, gluttony, avarice, sloth, wrath, envy and pride). For each sin we stretched our imagination to find a workable proxy--murder rates for wrath, per capita billionaires for avarice--then culled the available data sources to rank the cities. Some of the results were surprising: Salt Lake City as America's Vainest City. Some were not: Detroit as America's Most Murderous.

To view them on our interactive map, simply click on a cardinal sin, and the 10 worst (or best, depending on your point of view) cities for that particular vice will be displayed.

[Alex Murphy]

Some of the results were surprising: Salt Lake City as America's Vainest City.

Ouch!

[iowamark]

after claiming the title of the most sedentary city, Memphis, Tenn., has also ranked first as the country's most obese.

[MinorityRepublican]

Doesn’t make sense. Mormons are not considered to be vain.

[P-Marlowe]

As the number of cosmetic procedures nationwide continues to surge, we looked at which cities have most embraced market demand for taut faces, lush lips and flat abs. There were predictable entries like New York, Miami and Los Angeles, but also surprising ones like Louisville, Ky., and Nashville, Tenn. Most shocking of all was the town that ranked first: Salt Lake City.

[MinorityRepublican]

That is surprising. I would never had expected that.

[P-Marlowe]

That is surprising. I would never had expected that.

I suspect that you will find that that city also has the highest level of Prozac use.

[MinorityRepublican]

Well the Mormons are forbidden to have fun (no caffeine, no alcohol, etc.) so they might as well abuse prescription drugs.

[P-Marlowe]

Well the Mormons are forbidden to have fun (no caffeine, no alcohol, etc.) so they might as well abuse prescription drugs.

You know I never thought of that, but I don't think that prescription drugs are mentioned in the Word of Wisdom.

[greyfoxx39]

Well the Mormons are forbidden to have fun (no caffeine, no alcohol, etc.) so they might as well abuse prescription drugs.

You know I never thought of that, but I don't think that prescription drugs are mentioned in the Word of Wisdom.

If it has been added to the WOW, I haven't seen the announcement. However, I was surprised to see that Salt Lake City was ranked envy, No. 7, lust, No. 5. Must be all those Californians moving in.