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Not everyone is cut out for city life. Some people would prefer to live in the cities and towns that surround Columbus.
So the question arises, do the suburbs maintain a semblance of the larger-than-life appeal of their more famous neighbor?
Today, we'll use science and data to determine which Columbus 'burbs need a little tender loving care - the sore thumbs of the Columbus area if you will. Realistically, you can't expect all the suburbs to live up to Columbus proper, although Powell certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Columbus are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 35 biggest suburbs of Columbus to find out the worst places to live. And while you won't necessarily find them on the worst places to live in ohio lists, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Columbus in terms of quality of life.
Here are the 10 worst suburbs around Columbus for 2021:
- Buckeye Lake
- Hebron
- Whitehall
- Johnstown
- Obetz
- South Bloomfield
- Baltimore
- Circleville
- Grove
- Lancaster
What's the worst suburb of Columbus? Buckeye Lake ranks as the worst suburb of Columbus for 2021 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Columbus that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don't blame the messenger.
Or, if you're thinking of moving to elsewhere in ohio check out the best places in ohio overall or the worst.
And remember, there are some good places to live around Columbus too.
Editor's Note: If you see a slight difference between the worst in state rankings and this suburb ranking, it's because of the methodology. We needed a way to include more places, so we eliminated crime and commute times as criteria for this analysis.
For more Ohio reading, check out:
The 10 Worst Columbus Suburbs To Live For 2021
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We'll get the ball rolling with Buckeye Lake, the absolute worst place to live around Columbus according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Buckeye Lake beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 7th worst in the Columbus area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 3rd worst when it comes to home values.
But hey, at least it's cheap to live there. But there's a reason for that... it's Buckeye Lake.
You won't feel bad about not having a great income for the area, there aren't a bunch of places to spend your money anyway.
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Welcome to Hebron. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 26.4 miles to Columbus. Income levels here are the 2nd lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $41,154 a year, which doesn't go a long ways even on a shoestring budget.
But on the bright side, there are a lot of fast food joints in the area.
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Back up the highway we go for the third worst Columbus suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Whitehall on here. While the cost of living is low, your entertainment and work options are limited. And that's an understatement.
In terms of numbers, it's in the worst 15% for insurance, and the adult high school drop out rate is poor compared to other Columbus suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
4. Johnstown
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Population: 19,569
Rank Last Year: 4 (No Change)
Median Income: $24,561 (lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 13.9% (highest)
Median Home Value: $38,100 (lowest)
More on Johnstown:
If you live in Johnstown, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the lowest Columbus suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Columbus. Remember, we looked at 35 cities for this study.
Johnstown is about 19.4 miles to downtown.
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Obetz has the distinction of being a Columbus suburb. Which means that's about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Obetz has the 6th lowest home values in the metro Columbus area, where the median price is $124,400. To put that into perspective, in Powell, the median income is $203,409, which is the best in the area.
Obetz has an unemployment rate of 6.54% which ranks 5th worst.
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South Bloomfield has 2,075 residents that probably know it's a pretty crummy place to live when you look at the data. (Or, if you've ever been there, you don't need to look at the data.)
Incomes are towards the bottom and the poverty rate sits at 9.805825242718447%.
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Ah, Baltimore. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Columbus.
It's the place with the 2nd most out of work residents in the Columbus metro area (9.92%).
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Circleville is a city about 26.6 miles from Columbus, but Columbus probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb for 2018.
You'd be hard pressed to find a worse place to live. Circleville has the 18th most uninsured people, 5th worst incomes, and has the 7th highest unemployment rate (6.16%) in the entire Columbus metro area.
Homes only cost $124,800 for a reason. That's cheap for Columbus standards.
9. Grove
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Population: 6,957
Rank Last Year: 7 (Down 2)
Median Income: $41,875 (3rd lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 3.3% (20th highest)
Median Home Value: $165,600 (16th lowest)
More on Grove:
If you absolutely have to live near Columbus, then Grove might be a place for you to consider as it's only the 9th worst Columbus suburb.
About 3.3% of residents are out of work.
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Rounding out the ten worst Columbus suburbs to call home is Lancaster.
Located 26.9 miles outside the city, Lancasters is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 8th highest unemployment rate (5.77%), and poverty is far above the area average.
Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Columbus for 2021
To figure out how bad a place is to live in, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what cities have the least amount of those things.
We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the most recent American Community Survey data from 2015-2019, this is the criteria we used:
- High unemployment rate
- Low median household incomes
- Low population density (no things to do)
- Low home values
- A lot of high school drop outs
- High poverty
- High rate of uninsured families
FYI: We defined a suburb as being within 30 miles of Columbus.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 35 suburbs to evaluate around Columbus.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 35 in each category, where 1 was the "worst".
Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality of life index.
And finally, we crowned the city with the worst quality of life index the "Worst Suburb near Columbus." We're lookin' at you, Buckeye Lake. You can download the data here.
Read on below to learn more about what it's like to live in the worst of the worst. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the suburbs ranked from worst to best.
The areas around Columbus where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2021
Well there you have it -- the worst of the 'burbs surrounding Columbus with Buckeye Lake casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Columbus aren't all bad. Powell takes the cake as the best place to live around Columbus.
- Powell
- Upper Arlington
- Grandview Heights
For more Ohio reading, check out:
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Detailed List Of The Worst Columbus Suburbs
Rank | City | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Buckeye Lake | 2,805 |
2 | Hebron | 2,389 |
3 | Whitehall | 18,915 |
4 | Johnstown | 19,569 |
5 | Obetz | 5,024 |
6 | South Bloomfield | 2,075 |
7 | Baltimore | 2,992 |
8 | Circleville | 13,928 |
9 | Grove | 6,957 |
10 | Lancaster | 40,159 |
11 | Mount Sterling | 2,030 |
12 | London | 10,193 |
13 | West Jefferson | 4,364 |
14 | Heath | 10,745 |
15 | Pataskala | 15,585 |
16 | Ashville | 4,214 |
17 | Reynoldsburg | 38,129 |
18 | Delaware | 40,568 |
19 | Sunbury | 5,573 |
20 | Groveport | 5,617 |
21 | Marysville | 23,808 |
22 | Commercial Point | 2,002 |
23 | Canal Winchester | 8,611 |
24 | Hilliard | 36,411 |
25 | Pickerington | 20,631 |
26 | Westerville | 39,877 |
27 | Gahanna | 35,268 |
28 | Bexley | 13,786 |
29 | New Albany | 10,925 |
30 | Granville | 5,815 |
31 | Dublin | 46,499 |
32 | Worthington | 14,621 |
33 | Grandview Heights | 7,895 |
34 | Upper Arlington | 35,299 |
35 | Powell | 13,141 |
Powell and Dublin made the list with below criteria?, really can you ensure the criteria is correct as well as the list from #’s 1-33, being correct, and offer any more specific clarification of what was “threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible” meant?
Thought before I share/look into I wanted to ensure I wasn’t way off base. Thanks
-what kinds of things people like and then decide what cities have the least amount of those things.
High unemployment rate
Low median household incomes
Low population density (no things to do)
Low home values
A lot of high school drop outs
High poverty
High rate of uninsured families
And….”we crowned the city with the worst quality of life index the “Worst Suburb near Columbus.”
Not possible