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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 Pittsburgh.
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 Pittsburgh 'burbs need a little tender loving care - the sore thumbs of the Pittsburgh area if you will. Realistically, you can't expect all the suburbs to live up to Pittsburgh proper, although Aspinwall certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Pittsburgh are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 94 biggest suburbs of Pittsburgh to find out the worst places to live. And while you won't necessarily find them on the worst places to live in Pennsylvania lists, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Pittsburgh in terms of quality of life.
Here are the 10 worst suburbs around Pittsburgh for 2022:
What's the worst suburb of Pittsburgh? Brownsville ranks as the worst suburb of Pittsburgh for 2022 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Pittsburgh that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don't blame the messenger.
Or, if you're thinking of moving to elsewhere in Pennsylvania check out the best places in Pennsylvania overall or the worst.
And remember, there are some good places to live around Pittsburgh 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 Pennsylvania reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In Pennsylvania
- Cheapest Places To Live In Pennsylvania
- Most Dangerous Cities In Pennsylvania
The 10 Worst Pittsburgh Suburbs To Live For 2022
We'll get the ball rolling with Brownsville, the absolute worst place to live around Pittsburgh according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Brownsville beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the worst in the Pittsburgh area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 5th 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 Brownsville.
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 Homestead. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 4.2 miles to Pittsburgh. Income levels here are the 2nd lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $26,563 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 Pittsburgh suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Clairton 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 Pittsburgh suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
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If you live in McKeesport, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 3rd lowest Pittsburgh suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the 16th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Pittsburgh. Remember, we looked at 94 cities for this study.
McKeesport is about 9.7 miles to downtown.
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North Braddock has the distinction of being a Pittsburgh suburb. Which means that's about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, North Braddock has the 2nd lowest home values in the metro Pittsburgh area, where the median price is $46,000. To put that into perspective, in Aspinwall, the median income is $233,776, which is the best in the area.
North Braddock has an unemployment rate of 16.41% which ranks worst.
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Duquesne has 5,534 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 35.57605353590161%.
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Ah, McKees Rocks. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Pittsburgh.
It's the place with the 23rd most out of work residents in the Pittsburgh metro area (8.01%).
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Beaver Falls is a city about 28.6 miles from Pittsburgh, but Pittsburgh 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. Beaver Falls has the 17th most uninsured people, 16th worst incomes, and has the 8th highest unemployment rate (11.54%) in the entire Pittsburgh metro area.
Homes only cost $73,600 for a reason. That's cheap for Pittsburgh standards.
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If you absolutely have to live near Pittsburgh, then Midland might be a place for you to consider as it's only the 9th worst Pittsburgh suburb.
About 12.81% of residents are out of work.
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Rounding out the ten worst Pittsburgh suburbs to call home is Aliquippa.
Located 19.0 miles outside the city, Aliquippas is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 36th highest unemployment rate (6.9%), and poverty is far above the area average.
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Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Pittsburgh for 2022
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 2016-2020, 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 Pittsburgh.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 94 suburbs to evaluate around Pittsburgh.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 94 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 Pittsburgh." We're lookin' at you, Brownsville. 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.
Summary: The areas around Pittsburgh where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2022
Well there you have it -- the worst of the 'burbs surrounding Pittsburgh with Brownsville casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Pittsburgh aren't all bad. Aspinwall takes the cake as the best place to live around Pittsburgh.
- Aspinwall
- Edgewood
- Fox Chapel
For more Pennsylvania reading, check out:
- Best Places To Retire In Pennsylvania
- Richest Cities In Pennsylvania
- Safest Places In Pennsylvania
- Worst Places To Live In Pennsylvania
Detailed List Of The Worst Pittsburgh Suburbs
Rank | City | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Brownsville | 2,313 |
2 | Homestead | 3,168 |
3 | Clairton | 6,574 |
4 | Mckeesport | 19,128 |
5 | North Braddock | 4,703 |
6 | Duquesne | 5,534 |
7 | Mckees Rocks | 5,892 |
8 | Beaver Falls | 8,393 |
9 | Midland | 2,608 |
10 | Aliquippa | 8,918 |
11 | California | 6,306 |
12 | Donora | 4,580 |
13 | Turtle Creek | 5,161 |
14 | Mount Oliver | 3,304 |
15 | Tarentum | 4,397 |
16 | New Eagle | 2,433 |
17 | Pitcairn | 3,180 |
18 | Butler | 13,008 |
19 | Glassport | 4,338 |
20 | Arnold | 4,852 |
21 | Arnold | 4,852 |
22 | Arnold | 4,852 |
23 | Arnold | 4,852 |
24 | Sharpsburg | 3,347 |
25 | Charleroi | 3,923 |
26 | Rochester | 3,468 |
27 | Bentleyville | 2,466 |
28 | Monongahela | 4,142 |
29 | Jeannette | 9,146 |
30 | Liberty | 3,168 |
31 | New Kensington | 12,378 |
32 | Washington | 13,404 |
33 | Vandergrift | 4,914 |
34 | Monessen | 7,287 |
35 | Wilkinsburg | 15,367 |
36 | New Brighton | 5,731 |
37 | Verona | 2,669 |
38 | Ambridge | 6,660 |
39 | Munhall | 11,049 |
40 | West Newton | 2,581 |
41 | Brackenridge | 3,155 |
42 | Etna | 3,336 |
43 | West Mifflin | 19,742 |
44 | Coraopolis | 5,448 |
45 | Port Vue | 3,673 |
46 | Mcdonald | 2,282 |
47 | Millvale | 3,686 |
48 | Monaca | 5,466 |
49 | Irwin | 3,773 |
50 | Trafford | 3,057 |
51 | Bridgeville | 4,939 |
52 | Greensburg | 14,239 |
53 | Leechburg | 2,154 |
54 | Canonsburg | 8,815 |
55 | Swissvale | 8,724 |
56 | Conway | 2,150 |
57 | South Greensburg | 2,248 |
58 | Youngwood | 2,870 |
59 | Springdale | 3,307 |
60 | Baden | 3,911 |
61 | Emsworth | 2,514 |
62 | Brentwood | 9,319 |
63 | White Oak | 7,472 |
64 | Carnegie | 7,839 |
65 | West View | 6,547 |
66 | Ingram | 3,210 |
67 | Lower Burrell | 11,158 |
68 | Crafton | 5,810 |
69 | Avalon | 4,558 |
70 | Bellevue | 8,088 |
71 | Whitehall | 13,437 |
72 | New Stanton | 2,452 |
73 | Manor | 3,324 |
74 | Delmont | 2,532 |
75 | Forest Hills | 6,333 |
76 | Economy | 9,133 |
77 | Baldwin | 19,667 |
78 | Churchill | 2,925 |
79 | Southwest Greensburg | 2,145 |
80 | Zelienople | 3,694 |
81 | Castle Shannon | 8,249 |
82 | Beaver | 4,299 |
83 | Dormont | 8,335 |
84 | Green Tree | 4,814 |
85 | Pleasant Hills | 8,072 |
86 | Jefferson Hills | 11,166 |
87 | Franklin Park | 14,701 |
88 | Plum | 27,137 |
89 | Oakmont | 6,504 |
90 | Sewickley | 3,800 |
91 | Seven Fields | 2,762 |
92 | Fox Chapel | 5,104 |
93 | Edgewood | 3,020 |
94 | Aspinwall | 2,687 |