Detroit, Flint Are the Worst Cities to Live In, 24/7 Wall St. Says
Brian Manzullo
Detroit Free Press
2:47 p.m. ET June 5, 2018
There's no question Detroit has its shortcomings and struggles. And you expect to hear about them a lot when you come across lists such as this one.
24/7 Wall St. has unveiled its latest list of 50 Worst Cities to Live and, for the second consecutive year, the Motor City sits smack-dab at the top of the list.
The study cites a high poverty rate, declining population, a low median home value and a low percentage of bachelor's degrees as key indicators.
"The poster child of American post-industrial urban decline, Detroit, Michigan, ranks as the worst city in the country to live in," the study says. "Once home to 1.8 million residents at the peak of U.S. auto manufacturing in the 1950s, the city is now home to fewer than 700,000 after decades of decline.
"A poor, economically depressed city, more than one in every three Detroit residents live below the poverty line. ... Detroit is also dangerous. Along with Las Vegas, it is one of only two cities nationwide where there were over 2,000 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents in 2016."
In the city of Detroit, the unemployment rate was 7.4% in April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But Detroit has company from another Michigan city at the top of the list: Flint, which comes in at No. 2, one spot higher than last year.
"Flint is second worst city to live in in both Michigan and the United States as a whole," the study says. "Some 44.5% of Flint’s population lives below the poverty line, the highest poverty rate of any city in the country. Financial hardship in the city is precipitated in part by a lagging job market. The city’s 9.8% unemployment rate is double the annual U.S. unemployment rate of 4.9%.
"The city may be an unattractive place for many employers and small business owners to operate in, both because of high crime rates and the relatively small college-educated population. Flint’s violent crime rate of 1,587 incidents per 100,000 people is more than triple the state violent crime rate. Also, only 10.5% of city residents have a bachelor’s degree, about a third of the 31.3% share of American adults."
Rounding out the Top 5 are St. Louis, Las Vegas and Memphis. The only other Michigan city on the list is Kalamazoo at No. 38.
You can read the methodology here. But these sorts of studies only scrape the surface of what a city such as Detroit is really like. As the largest newspaper in Detroit and the state of Michigan, we've covered Detroit unlike anybody else.
Contact Brian Manzullo: bmanzullo@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrianManzullo.
Detroit Free Press
2:47 p.m. ET June 5, 2018
There's no question Detroit has its shortcomings and struggles. And you expect to hear about them a lot when you come across lists such as this one.
24/7 Wall St. has unveiled its latest list of 50 Worst Cities to Live and, for the second consecutive year, the Motor City sits smack-dab at the top of the list.
The study cites a high poverty rate, declining population, a low median home value and a low percentage of bachelor's degrees as key indicators.
"The poster child of American post-industrial urban decline, Detroit, Michigan, ranks as the worst city in the country to live in," the study says. "Once home to 1.8 million residents at the peak of U.S. auto manufacturing in the 1950s, the city is now home to fewer than 700,000 after decades of decline.
"A poor, economically depressed city, more than one in every three Detroit residents live below the poverty line. ... Detroit is also dangerous. Along with Las Vegas, it is one of only two cities nationwide where there were over 2,000 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents in 2016."
In the city of Detroit, the unemployment rate was 7.4% in April, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But Detroit has company from another Michigan city at the top of the list: Flint, which comes in at No. 2, one spot higher than last year.
"Flint is second worst city to live in in both Michigan and the United States as a whole," the study says. "Some 44.5% of Flint’s population lives below the poverty line, the highest poverty rate of any city in the country. Financial hardship in the city is precipitated in part by a lagging job market. The city’s 9.8% unemployment rate is double the annual U.S. unemployment rate of 4.9%.
"The city may be an unattractive place for many employers and small business owners to operate in, both because of high crime rates and the relatively small college-educated population. Flint’s violent crime rate of 1,587 incidents per 100,000 people is more than triple the state violent crime rate. Also, only 10.5% of city residents have a bachelor’s degree, about a third of the 31.3% share of American adults."
Rounding out the Top 5 are St. Louis, Las Vegas and Memphis. The only other Michigan city on the list is Kalamazoo at No. 38.
You can read the methodology here. But these sorts of studies only scrape the surface of what a city such as Detroit is really like. As the largest newspaper in Detroit and the state of Michigan, we've covered Detroit unlike anybody else.
Contact Brian Manzullo: bmanzullo@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @BrianManzullo.
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