The suburbs of Louisville call to all types of people looking to escape city live. Some people would prefer to live in the cities and towns that surround Louisville to avoid all the hustle and bustle.
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 Louisville ‘burbs need a little tender loving care – the sore thumbs of the Louisville area if you will. Realistically, you can’t expect all the suburbs to live up to Louisville proper, although Hurstbourne certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Louisville are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 35 biggest suburbs of Louisville to find out the worst places to live. And while you won’t necessarily find them on the worst places to live in Kentucky lists, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Louisville in terms of quality of life.
Here are the 10 worst suburbs around Louisville for 2023:
What’s the worst suburb of Louisville? Louisville ranks as the worst suburb of Louisville for 2023 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Louisville that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don’t blame the messenger.
Or, if you’re thinking of moving to elsewhere in Kentucky check out the best places in Kentucky overall or the worst.
And remember, there are some good places to live around Louisville too.
Article Table Of Contents
For more Kentucky reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In Kentucky
- Cheapest Places To Live In Kentucky
- Most Dangerous Cities In Kentucky
The 10 Worst Louisville Suburbs To Live For 2023
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We’ll get the ball rolling with Louisville, the absolute worst place to live around Louisville according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Louisville beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the worst in the Louisville 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 Louisville.
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 Louisville. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 2.3 miles to Louisville. Income levels here are the lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $34,654 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 Louisville suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Louisville 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 Louisville suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
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If you live in Louisville, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the lowest Louisville suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the 2nd worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Louisville. Remember, we looked at 35 cities for this study.
Louisville is about 4.3 miles to downtown.
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Population: 2,214
Rank Last Year: 3 (No Change)
Median Income: $47,500 (7th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 11.7% (highest)
Median Home Value: $113,400 (5th lowest)
More on Lebanon Junction: Data
Lebanon Junction has the distinction of being a Louisville suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Lebanon Junction has the 5th lowest home values in the metro Louisville area, where the median price is $113,400. To put that into perspective, in Hurstbourne, the median income is $199,261, which is the best in the area.
Lebanon Junction has an unemployment rate of 11.74% which ranks worst.
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Population: 1,974
Rank Last Year: 4 (No Change)
Median Income: $44,757 (4th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 4.1% (18th highest)
Median Home Value: $95,000 (lowest)
More on West Buechel: Data
West Buechel has 1,974 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 16.717325227963528%.
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Ah, Radcliff. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Louisville.
It’s the place with the 4th most out of work residents in the Louisville metro area (8.83%).
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Brandenburg is a city about 29.9 miles from Louisville, but Louisville 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. Brandenburg has the 24th most uninsured people, 6th worst incomes, and has the 9th highest unemployment rate (6.0%) in the entire Louisville metro area.
Homes only cost $167,500 for a reason. That’s cheap for Louisville standards.
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If you absolutely have to live near Louisville, then Shively might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst Louisville suburb.
About 6.11% of residents are out of work.
10. Clarksville
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Population: 22,169
Rank Last Year: 9 (Up 1)
Median Income: $49,892 (10th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 4.8% (15th highest)
Median Home Value: $135,700 (8th lowest)
More on Clarksville:
Rounding out the ten worst Louisville suburbs to call home is Clarksville.
Located 8.5 miles outside the city, Clarksvilles is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 15th highest unemployment rate (4.79%), and poverty is far above the area average.
Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Louisville for 2023
To figure out how bad a Louisville suburb is to live in, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what suburbs 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 2017-2021, 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 Louisville.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 1,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 35 suburbs to evaluate around Louisville.
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 Louisville.” We’re lookin’ at you, Louisville.
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.
Summary: The areas around Louisville where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2023
Well there you have it — the worst of the ‘burbs surrounding Louisville with Louisville casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Louisville aren’t all bad. Hurstbourne takes the cake as the best place to live around Louisville.
- Hurstbourne
- Indian Hills
- Anchorage
For more Kentucky reading, check out:
- Best Places To Retire In Kentucky
- Richest Cities In Kentucky
- Safest Places In Kentucky
- Worst Places To Live In Kentucky
Detailed List Of The Worst Louisville Suburbs
Rank | City | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Louisville | 6,108 |
2 | Louisville | 6,108 |
3 | Louisville | 6,108 |
4 | Louisville | 6,108 |
5 | Lebanon Junction | 2,214 |
6 | West Buechel | 1,974 |
7 | Radcliff | 22,839 |
8 | Brandenburg | 2,857 |
9 | Shively | 15,638 |
10 | Clarksville | 22,169 |
11 | Corydon | 3,094 |
12 | New Albany | 37,350 |
13 | Charlestown | 7,859 |
14 | Shelbyville | 16,932 |
15 | Hillview | 8,638 |
16 | Jeffersonville | 49,178 |
17 | Shepherdsville | 13,918 |
18 | Sellersburg | 9,686 |
19 | La Grange | 9,901 |
20 | Crestwood | 6,046 |
21 | Georgetown | 36,281 |
22 | Middletown | 9,473 |
23 | Lyndon | 11,033 |
24 | Mount Washington | 17,723 |
25 | Simpsonville | 2,932 |
26 | Jeffersontown | 28,800 |
27 | Graymoor-Devondale | 2,886 |
28 | St. Matthews | 17,588 |
29 | Douglass Hills | 5,480 |
30 | Prospect | 4,653 |
31 | Orchard Grass Hills | 1,986 |
32 | Windy Hills | 2,381 |
33 | Anchorage | 2,607 |
34 | Indian Hills | 2,878 |
35 | Hurstbourne | 4,644 |