Fancy an extra hour of sleep every morning? Maybe you should move to another city.
Nate Silver has used data from the American Community Survey to calculate the “median time” at which people in different cities start work.
Silver was able to do this because, essentially, he’s some sort of freaky statistical genius.
His analysis found that workers tend to start later in heavily metropolitan cities with high populations. More rural areas, which rely on farming, or cities with military bases have earlier median start times.
“The workday schedule is dictated more by the type of work than the location,” Silver writes. “If you’re an early bird or a night owl and want a work schedule that matches your metabolism, changing jobs is a better strategy than changing cities.”
Of course, if you want to sleep in, you could choose a city dominated by industries with late start times. We’ve picked out the five latest- and earliest-rising cities in the United States, according to Silver’s data.
LATE RISERS
• New York, 8:24am
“The majority of highly populous metro areas begin working a little later,” Silver says. Well, New York is about as highly populous as metro areas come.
• Atlantic City, 8:23am
The city’s economy relies heavily on tourism and gambling, which means a whole quarter of the workforce doesn’t start until 11:30am or later.
• San Jose, 8:21am
This Californian city has been called the “Capital of Silicon Valley”. It’s home to a bunch of young technology professionals, who are otherwise known as “nerds”. San Jose began life as a small farming community, but now it’s the 10th-largest city in the US.
• Ithaca, 8:19am
Ithaca is the home of Cornell University, with its student body of more than 20,000. Silver says university towns sleep in. Go figure.
• San Francisco, 8:17am
Come on. You can’t expect the hipsters to start work before enjoying a leisurely bowl of quinoa.
EARLY RISERS
• Hinesville, 7:01am
This one probably has something to do with Fort Stewart, a United States Army post that houses more than 11,000 people in Hinesville. The total population of the city is about 33,000. When so many people in the place are in the military, they’re going to be early risers.
• Pascagoula, 7:06am
This city in Mississippi is dominated by industrial work, which tends to require a lot of early starts. It was a fishing village until World War II, when the shipbuilding industry exploded.
• Jacksonville, 7:14am
Jacksonville is another big military town. It hosts Camp Lejeune, a training facility for the US Marine Corps. The large military presence also makes it the youngest city in the nation.
• Elkhart, 7:15am
This city in Indiana has been called the “RV Capital of the World”, because it’s well known for making recreational vehicles. And that’s just about everything you’ll ever need to know about Elkhart.
• Clarksville, 7:20am
Clarksville is right next to a US Army base, Fort Campbell. Can you see the trend yet?
This article originally appeared on News.com.au