These Are The 10 Worst Hartford Suburbs

Hartford conjures up images of tons of things to do, quality people, and a bustling economy. The region consistently ranks as one of the best places to live across the country.

But not everyone is cut out for city life. Some people would prefer to live in the cities and towns that surround Hartford.

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 Hartford ‘burbs need a little tender loving care – the sore thumbs of the Hartford area if you will. Realistically, you can’t expect all the suburbs to live up to Hartford proper, although West Simsbury certainly tries.

We examined the 21 biggest suburbs of Hartford to find out the worst places to live. And while you won’t find them on the worst places to live in Connecticut, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Hartford in terms of quality of life:

1. Blue Hills
2. East Hartford
3. New Britain
4. Portland
5. Manchester
6. Bristol
7. Middletown
8. Storrs
9. Rockville
10. Terryville

Read on to see how we determined the places around Hartford that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don’t blame the messenger. And once you’re done, you can look at the bottom of the story for a complete chart of worst to best.

How we determined the worst Hartford ‘burbs

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 Census’s most recent 2010-2014 American Community Survey, this is the criteria we used:

• Low unemployment (Less jobs)
• Low median income (Less pay)
• Low population density (No things to do)
• Low home values (No one’s willing to pay to live here)
• High number of high school drop outs

Then, we ranked each place that have over 5,000 people around Hartford for each of these criteria from worst to best.

The place with the lowest average rankings for these criteria ranks as the worst suburb of Hartford.

Read on below to learn more about these terrible places around Hartford to live. Or skip to the end to see the list of all 21 suburbs ranked from worst to best.

This list is a scientific analysis based on real data and is completely unbiased. Snarkiness incorporated for entertainment purposes only. Hold on to your pants.

1. Blue Hills

Population: 2,735
Median Income: $58,750
Median Home Value: $160,300

2. East Hartford

Population: 51,211
Median Income: $50,355
Median Home Value: $169,900

3. New Britain

Population: 73,095
Median Income: $40,515
Median Home Value: $162,100

4. Portland

Population: 5,634
Median Income: $69,907
Median Home Value: $233,200

5. Manchester

Population: 30,621
Median Income: $54,364
Median Home Value: $174,100

6. Bristol

Population: 60,556
Median Income: $60,208
Median Home Value: $199,000

7. Middletown

Population: 47,424
Median Income: $61,373
Median Home Value: $231,700

8. Storrs

Population: 15,374
Median Income: $31,925
Median Home Value: $229,900

9. Rockville

Population: 7,348
Median Income: $36,790
Median Home Value: $175,500

10. Terryville

Population: 5,121
Median Income: $63,953
Median Home Value: $189,700

The areas around Hartford that you probably don’t want to live in

Well there you have it — the worst of the ‘burbs surrounding Hartford with Blue Hills landing ahead of the pack.

As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Hartford aren’t all bad. West Simsbury takes the cake as the best place to live around Hartford.

For the chart below, these are ranked from worst to best.
For more Connecticut reading, check out:

• 17 Hilarious Connecticut Jokes That Are Actually Funny
• If You’re From Connecticut This Will Be The Most Jaw-Dropping Thing You See Today. Guaranteed.
• These Are The 10 Best Places To Live In Connecticut According to Science

Detailed List Of Hartford Suburbs