Columbia among the ‘most sinful’ US cities, rankings say. How they calculated ‘sins’

Columbia may be comfortably in the Bible Belt, but it’s also one of the most sinful cities in the U.S., according to rankings released Thursday by WalletHub.

The personal finance website released a report on the “Most Sinful Cities” in the country, comparing more than 180 U.S. cities based on seven sinful behaviors: anger and hatred, jealousy, excesses and vices, greed, lust, vanity and laziness, according to a release.

Not surprisingly, Las Vegas — which is known as “Sin City” — ranked No. 1. Columbia ranked No. 30.

“From beer-loving Milwaukee to hedonistic New Orleans, the U.S. is filled with people behaving illicitly. No place is innocent. We all have demons,” WalletHub said in a release. “... Luckily for the saints among us, all American sins are not created, or distributed, equally.”

The Capital City ranked highest — No. 5 — in the “Excesses and vice” category, which assigns fractions of points to several factors including the share of obese adults; the number of fast-food establishments per capita; excessive drinking; DUI-related fatalities; share of adult smokers; share of adult coffee drinkers; share of population using marijuana; retail opioid prescriptions dispensed per 100 persons; drug overdose deaths; and debt-to-income ration.

In other categories: vanity was calculated using the number of beauty salons per capita, the number of tanning salons per capita and the Google search interest index for “Top 5 Plastic Surgeries;” lust was calculated using the number of adult entertainment establishments per capita, Google search interest index for “XXX Entertainment,” teen birth rate and the “Most active Tinder users” ranking.

Anger and hatred rankings were calculated using violent crimes per capita; sex offenders per capita; bullying rate; hate-crime incidents per capita; hate groups per capita; deaths due to firearms; number of mass shootings; and the number of terrorist attacks.

Columbia ranked No. 48 in anger and hatred; No. 33 in jealousy; No. 53 in greed; No. 131 in lust; No. 50 in vanity; and No. 17 in laziness, according to the rankings.

While Columbia’s overall ranking was No. 30, its less sinful Palmetto State neighbor was Charleston at No. 55. Charlotte was ranked No. 58 and Augusta was No. 71.

This story was originally published November 29, 2018 at 1:59 PM.