These Are The 10 Laziest Places In Massachusetts

Everyone hates the lazy person in the office. The guy or gal who manages to offload all of their work to you, but somehow still takes the credit for it.

And if you live in one of these Massachusetts towns, you might look in the mirror and see that lazy person staring right back at you.

We’re not trying to be mean; it’s just that the lazy ethos can penetrate from the location into the workplace and no one wants to work with lazy people.

So we got to work late on a Friday night to figure out the places around Massachusetts that spend the day on Reddit and get by with the bare minimum. Using data from the latest American Community Survey, we identified criteria associated with laziness for each city.

After crunching all the numbers, here are the ten “Laziest Places in Massachusetts” based on data:

1. Fall River
2. Springfield
3. North Adams
4. Holyoke
5. New Bedford
6. Pittsfield
7. Chicopee
8. Gardner
9. Lawrence
10. Southbridge Town

Read on to see where the couch potatoes call home or skip to the end to find where your town ranked.

Oh, and by the way, Franklin Town is the hardest-working place in MA.

How We Determined The Laziest Places In The Bay State

Like all problems here at Zippia, we start with the data to answer the hard questions. Some might even consider us the hardest working data-crunchers this side of the Mississippi.

In this particular case, we went to the latest version of the American Community Survey looking for answers. As luck would have it, the Census Bureau just released the 2010-2014 5-Yr Estimate which would make this analysis the first of it’s kind with the new data.

After scrolling through what seemed like hundreds of criteria, we settled on this set for the laziest places in Massachusetts:

• Lowest average hours worked
• Shortest commute time
• Fewest workers per household (Labor force divided by the number households)
• Highest unemployment rate
• Fewest adults with a college degree

Our thinking went something along the lines of if you can’t bother to go college, don’t spend any time at work, and have only one person per household bringing home the bacon, your town is probably pretty lazy.

After we got the data for the 53 places in Massachusetts over 5,000 people, we ranked each place from 1 to 53 for each of the criteria with 1 being the “laziest”.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each to create a lazy index.

Finally, we crowned the place with the lowest lazy index the “Laziest Place In Massachusetts”. And, at the end of the day, Fall River slacked off its way to the top.

Read the detailed chart below to learn a bit more about why each place ranked where it did.

1. Fall River

Population: 88,756College Educated: 13.8%
Unemployment Rate: 15.0%

2. Springfield

Population: 153,836College Educated: 17.9%
Unemployment Rate: 15.4%

3. North Adams

Population: 13,563College Educated: 21.1%
Unemployment Rate: 11.7%

4. Holyoke

Population: 40,079College Educated: 23.2%
Unemployment Rate: 14.4%

5. New Bedford

Population: 94,873College Educated: 15.3%
Unemployment Rate: 12.2%

6. Pittsfield

Population: 44,226College Educated: 26.0%
Unemployment Rate: 10.8%

7. Chicopee

Population: 55,603College Educated: 17.8%
Unemployment Rate: 10.1%

8. Gardner

Population: 20,279College Educated: 17.4%
Unemployment Rate: 11.3%

9. Lawrence

Population: 77,364College Educated: 11.9%
Unemployment Rate: 13.5%

10. Southbridge Town

Population: 16,775 College Educated: 17.4%
Unemployment Rate: 10.4%

Slacking Your Way Off To The Bottom

Like we said earlier, trying to determine the laziest places in Massachusetts is usually a subjective matter. But if you’re analyzing cities where people don’t work, where a good education is rare, and no one’s willing to put in the long hours, then this is an accurate list of laziness.

Detailed List Of The Laziest Places In Massachusetts

City	Rank	Population	College Educated	Unemployment Rate
Fall River	1	88,756	13.8%	15.0%
Springfield	2	153,836	17.9%	15.4%
North Adams	3	13,563	21.1%	11.7%
Holyoke	4	40,079	23.2%	14.4%
New Bedford	5	94,873	15.3%	12.2%
Pittsfield	6	44,226	26.0%	10.8%
Chicopee	7	55,603	17.8%	10.1%
Gardner	8	20,279	17.4%	11.3%
Lawrence	9	77,364	11.9%	13.5%
Southbridge Town	10	16,775	17.4%	10.4%
West Springfield Town	11	28,554	28.5%	10.5%
Fitchburg	12	40,419	20.6%	12.5%
Palmer Town	13	12,155	20.7%	10.6%
Worcester	14	182,511	30.1%	10.5%
Greenfield Town	15	17,484	27.1%	7.4%
Taunton	16	56,056	18.5%	10.4%
Lowell	17	108,491	21.6%	11.5%
Leominster	18	40,954	26.4%	10.1%
Barnstable Town	19	44,750	37.5%	7.7%
Lynn	20	91,289	19.3%	10.9%
Brockton	21	94,267	18.1%	13.6%
Gloucester	22	29,237	32.7%	10.0%
Agawam Town	23	28,626	27.8%	7.0%
Westfield	24	41,371	30.2%	9.5%
Easthampton Town	25	16,066	30.8%	6.1%
Salem	26	42,321	38.1%	9.5%
Chelsea	27	37,084	16.4%	11.2%
Peabody	28	51,868	28.8%	6.1%
Winthrop Town	29	17,992	35.2%	8.9%
Revere	30	53,258	19.0%	10.4%
Haverhill	31	61,769	28.7%	9.1%
Northampton	32	28,637	56.0%	7.8%
Methuen Town	33	48,159	28.7%	8.0%
Everett	34	42,758	16.1%	10.1%
Weymouth Town	35	54,815	32.0%	9.4%
Attleboro	36	43,774	30.2%	8.8%
Boston	37	639,594	44.6%	10.0%
Beverly	38	40,370	45.4%	7.0%
Woburn	39	38,826	35.3%	7.0%
Malden	40	60,309	31.7%	11.0%
Quincy	41	92,920	40.0%	9.4%
Marlborough	42	39,141	39.2%	6.9%
Newburyport	43	17,662	57.8%	8.7%
Waltham	44	61,908	48.4%	6.3%
Watertown Town	45	32,880	57.7%	7.7%
Braintree Town	46	36,543	37.0%	8.3%
Medford	47	56,981	45.0%	6.7%
Amesbury Town	48	16,554	41.9%	6.9%
Cambridge	49	106,844	74.7%	5.8%
Somerville	50	77,560	55.5%	6.5%
Newton	51	86,945	75.9%	5.7%
Melrose	52	27,509	50.5%	4.8%
Franklin Town	53	32,393	51.5%	6.9%

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