The 10 Worst Places To Live In Pennsylvania For 2023


The worst places to live in Pennsylvania are Clairton and McKeesport for 2023 based on Friday Night Science.

By: Nick Johnson | About HomeSnacks
Last Updated: September 22, 2023

Ah, the P.A. Where you’ve got two liberal bookends, and in between, some pretty rural stretches of conservatism. The only place in the country where all the sports teams have the same colors, and where the fans actually know what the heck they’re talking about.

And then there’s the food and the culture. Plus, Pittsburgh has been named as one of the best cities in the nation many times over now.

Pennsylvania might be one of the most interesting and unique states in the nation.

Is it all good in the Keystone State? Of course not. Just like every other state, PA has its least desirable spots. The purpose of this post is to use science and data to determine which places are the worst you could possibly live in if you make Pennsylvania your home.

After analyzing 173 of the state’s most populous cities (over 5,000 people), we came up with this list as the 10 worst places to live in the state of Pennsylvania:

The 10 Worst Places To Live In Pennsylvania For 2023

  1. Clairton
  2. McKeesport
  3. Duquesne
  4. Corry
  5. Collingdale
  6. McKees Rocks
  7. Chester
  8. Reading
  9. Folcroft
  10. Darby

Where are these places, you wonder? And before you get all riled up and say we’re picking on small towns in Pennsylvania, that’s not the case.

We understand there’s a lot of good in every place. For example, the best place to live in Pennsylvania is Camp Hill.

However, according to data (which doesn’t measure things like beauty and ‘friendly people’), the state has far better options for making a place home. And the worst place to live in Pennsylvania? The worst place to live in Pennsylvania is Clairton.

Read below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your city fared in 2023.

If you’re looking for something more national, check out the worst cities in America or the worst states in America.

For more Pennsylvania reading, check out:

Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table

The 10 Worst Places To Live In Pennsylvania For 2023

1. Clairton

Clairton, PA

Source: Wikipedia User Bernini123 | CC BY-SA 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 6,245
Rank Last Year: 1 (No Change)
Median Home Value: $48,100
Unemployment Rate: 9.7%
More on Clairton:  Data | Photos

Clairton had a moment of Hollywood fame in the 1970s. It served as the hometown for characters in the The Deer Hunter, which won the 1978 Best Picture Oscar. Nowadays, the community is famous for a much less impressive reason: it’s one of the worst places to live in Pennsylvania.

A rough economy weighs on the 6,245 residents, with a 9.7% unemployment rate and a median income of $37,544. Crime also sits slightly above the national average.

Located a half hour southeast of Pittsburgh, Clairton does have some good points. For instance, residents can take advantage of the nearby Dead Man’s Hollow Conservation Area.

2. McKeesport

Mckeesport, PA

Source: Wikipedia User David Wilson from Oak Par | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 17,935
Rank Last Year: 3 (Up 1)
Median Home Value: $52,400
Unemployment Rate: 8.2%
More on Mckeesport:  Data | Photos

About 12 miles southeast of Pittsburgh is the rundown and partly abandoned city of McKeesport. Don’t get it confused with McKees ROCKS, another terrible place outside of Pittsburgh which gets an honorable mention as a place to avoid moving to.

There’s barely a single decent home in McKeesport, and nearly every other building is a crack den or just…empty. There’s a reason people call it Disease Port.

Homes are the 5th cheapest in the entire state where you can get a place for about $52,400, although in some of these streets, you could offer $4,000 and be taken seriously. There are housing projects everywhere and ‘downtown’ if you can call it that, lacks anything desirable for most people looking for quality of life. Even the elementary schools have metal detectors in em.

And if you don’t like gangs, then you wouldn’t like McKeesport. That’s because there are rival gangs here.

It’s very poor and there’s VERY little opportunities for work. And the drive to Pittsburgh is bleak, sad and depressing.

There’s about 19,000 people here. Don’t make it 19,000 and 1.

3. Duquesne

Duquesne, PA

Source: Flickr User jmd41280 | CC BY-ND 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 5,280
Rank Last Year: 2 (Down 1)
Median Home Value: $51,000
Unemployment Rate: 9.1%
More on Duquesne:  Data | Photos

Built along the west bank of the Monongahela River, Duquesne serves as a suburb of Pittsburgh. A 20-minute drive will take you to the city center. This access to a major metropolitan area provides one of the main draws for the town.

Unfortunately, there are other factors at play. That convenient location doesn’t save the community from becoming the number 3 worst location in Pennsylvania.

The 5,280 residents of Duquesne must suffer through a dismal economy, a high crime rate, and mediocre schools. The unemployment rate sits at 9.1%, while 28.3% of locals eke out a living below the poverty line.

4. Corry

Corry, PA

Source: Wikipedia User Niagara | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 6,251
Rank Last Year: 9 (Up 5)
Median Home Value: $75,300
Unemployment Rate: 11.0%
More on Corry:  Data | Photos

5. Collingdale

Collingdale, PA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 8,857
Rank Last Year: 8 (Up 3)
Median Home Value: $120,500
Unemployment Rate: 9.5%
More on Collingdale:  Data | Photos

6. McKees Rocks

Mckees Rocks, PA

Source: Wikipedia User Lee Paxton | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 5,930
Rank Last Year: 6 (No Change)
Median Home Value: $53,700
Unemployment Rate: 11.9%
More on Mckees Rocks:  Data | Photos

McKees Rocks is built along the Ohio River, about 10 minutes from the center of Pittsburgh. The area once thrived, thanks to strong steel and railroad industries. These began fading during the second half of the 20th century and now the community ranks as the number 6 worst area in Pennsylvania.

Housing, jobs, and safety make McKees Rocks a rough area. The unemployment rate stands at 11.9% and the community suffers a 30.7% poverty rate. Meanwhile, the crime rate hovers about 160% above the national average.

7. Chester

Chester, PA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 32,819
Rank Last Year: 5 (Down 2)
Median Home Value: $71,300
Unemployment Rate: 15.8%
More on Chester:  Data | Photos

Chester, PA needs a big hug right now. The unemployment rate here is 15.8%, the median income is just above the poverty line, and the crime is the 33rd highest in the state. You have a 1 in 27.5 chance of being robbed here every year.

Oh yeah, and they had 22 murders a couple of years back.

Chester is right along the Delaware river, south of Philly. Youse could find a much better place to call home.

8. Reading

Reading, PA

Source: Wikipedia User Flickr upload bot | CC BY-SA 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 94,161
Rank Last Year: 7 (Down 1)
Median Home Value: $83,100
Unemployment Rate: 11.9%
More on Reading:  Data | Photos

Where’s our 8th worst place to move to in the state of Pennsylvania? Reading is.

About halfway between Allentown and Lancaster (lankuster) is the community of Reading. It’s bad here and getting worse here. Locals call this a ‘mad ghetto’. At one point it was the poorest city in the nation. Police officers and firefighters god bless them – hand out food here to the growing number of poverty stricken folks. It’s filled with dilapidated row homes, rodents, homeless and junkies. The amount of concentrated poverty here is only surpassed by Camden in the entire region of this country.

If you moved here, your children would on a daily basis be exposed to overdoses, gun violence, abandoned factories, slums and urban decay. The south side of Reading is the worst part of town.

Anyways, folks here are unemployed at the 11th highest rate in the state, and people have compared this to a third world country so that’s not very good at all.

9. Folcroft

Folcroft, PA

Source: Wikipedia User US Census, Ruhrfisch | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 6,738
Rank Last Year: 10 (Up 1)
Median Home Value: $117,800
Unemployment Rate: 10.9%
More on Folcroft:  Data | Photos

10. Darby

Darby, PA

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

4
/10

Population: 10,688
Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 6)
Median Home Value: $81,800
Unemployment Rate: 13.2%
More on Darby:  Data | Photos

Darby exists as a suburb of Philadelphia, about 20 minutes southwest of the city center. Easy access to one of the region’s major cultural centers hasn’t done much of this town of 10,688 residents. It’s considered one of the worst places to live in all of Pennsylvania.

Economic woes weigh on the population. The unemployment rate comes in at 13.2% and the median income sits at $51,388. This dismal financial situation leads to other challenges. The crime rate runs about 90% above the U.S. norm.

There are sparks of joy in Darby as well. For instance, residents can head to Bartram Park for a pleasant hike.

Methodology: How we determined the worst places to live in Pennsylvania for 2023

To figure out the worst places to live in Pennsylvania, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what cities have the least amount of those things.

We don’t think it’s a stretch to assume that people like the following things:

  • Good education
  • Lots of jobs
  • Low crime
  • Low poverty
  • Nice homes
  • High incomes
  • High population density (Lots of things to do)
  • Short work commutes
  • Health insurance

The data comes from the Census’s most recent American Community Survey and the FBI Uniform Crime Report.

We broke crime down into violent crime and property crime to give violent crime a more significant weight. If you did a simple calculation of all crimes per capita, property crimes are typically 7x more common and bias that ranking.

Furthermore, only cities with at least 5,000 people were considered — leaving 173 cities.

We then ranked each city from 1 to 173 for all the criteria, with a #1 ranking being the worst for the particular criteria.

Next, we averaged the rankings into one “Worst Place To Live Score.”

Finally, we ranked every city on the “Worst Place To Live Score,” with the lowest score being the worst city in Pennsylvania — Clairton. Read on for a detailed look at the ten worst cities in Pennsylvania.

Editor’s Note: This article is an opinion based on facts meant as infotainment. We updated this article for 2023. This is our tenth time ranking the worst places to live in Pennsylvania.
Safest Places In Pennsylvania

Summary: Wrapping Up The Worst In Pennsylvania

If you’re looking at areas in Pennsylvania with the worst economic situations, where there’s higher than average crime and little to do, this is an accurate list.

And in the end, Clairton ranks as the worst city to live in Pennsylvania for 2023.

If you’re curious enough, here are the best cities to live in Pennsylvania:

  1. Ridley Park (Pop. 7,131)
  2. Swarthmore (Pop. 6,560)
  3. Camp Hill (Pop. 8,115)

For more Pennsylvania reading, check out:

Worst Places To Live In Pennsylvania?

Rank City Population Unemployment Rate Home Value
1 Clairton 6,245 9.7% $48,100
2 McKeesport 17,935 8.2% $52,400
3 Duquesne 5,280 9.1% $51,000
4 Corry 6,251 11.0% $75,300
5 Collingdale 8,857 9.5% $120,500
6 McKees Rocks 5,930 11.9% $53,700
7 Chester 32,819 15.8% $71,300
8 Reading 94,161 11.9% $83,100
9 Folcroft 6,738 10.9% $117,800
10 Darby 10,688 13.2% $81,800
11 Hazleton 29,339 6.9% $98,600
12 Turtle Creek 5,136 13.1% $56,700
13 Yeadon 11,945 8.3% $142,300
14 West Mifflin 19,638 9.2% $102,800
15 Allentown 125,250 9.6% $145,700
16 Sharon Hill 5,952 18.9% $121,600
17 West Hazleton 5,076 7.4% $87,400
18 Lehighton 5,267 13.0% $131,000
19 York 44,692 11.6% $80,000
20 Jeannette 8,835 7.3% $90,600
21 Clifton Heights 6,806 19.2% $157,800
22 Lebanon 26,611 10.4% $105,000
23 Harrisburg 49,969 8.7% $95,300
24 Wilkes-Barre 44,086 8.1% $83,100
25 Monessen 6,941 6.2% $75,700
26 California 5,628 7.7% $117,800
27 Munhall 10,827 6.4% $96,400
28 Wilkinsburg 14,492 8.9% $98,600
29 Aliquippa 9,237 7.4% $83,100
30 Oxford 5,671 7.5% $227,600
31 East Stroudsburg 9,820 7.4% $158,800
32 Uniontown 9,988 13.8% $81,700
33 Chambersburg 22,141 4.8% $159,900
34 Pittston 7,589 8.3% $93,600
35 Nanticoke 10,588 6.7% $84,600
36 New Kensington 12,222 5.5% $106,500
37 Erie 95,536 7.8% $91,300
38 New Castle 21,992 13.8% $64,600
39 Sharon 13,203 10.1% $63,800
40 Stroudsburg 5,870 3.8% $163,800
41 Beaver Falls 9,069 12.1% $75,000
42 Philadelphia 1,596,865 8.9% $184,100
43 Shamokin 6,981 9.4% $42,400
44 Steelton 6,217 6.9% $100,400
45 Connellsville 7,092 7.1% $104,300
46 Whitehall 14,882 5.6% $181,800
47 White Oak 7,623 5.3% $118,600
48 Millersville 7,698 5.0% $190,300
49 Washington 13,322 9.4% $99,800
50 Jefferson Hills 12,215 4.0% $255,500
51 Bethlehem 75,599 5.6% $185,600
52 Tyrone 5,473 6.9% $106,100
53 Hanover 16,291 6.9% $161,500
54 Lancaster 58,034 7.0% $145,300
55 Lock Haven 8,458 6.8% $132,100
56 Tamaqua 6,940 7.8% $65,300
57 Scranton 75,987 5.8% $112,600
58 Baldwin 21,274 4.1% $156,700
59 Coatesville 13,306 9.1% $126,000
60 Milton 6,641 6.1% $146,900
61 Easton 27,860 5.3% $132,300
62 Birdsboro 5,119 5.7% $174,500
63 Johnstown 18,647 8.9% $36,600
64 Butler 13,452 10.4% $92,900
65 Coraopolis 5,539 5.3% $98,300
66 Vandergrift 5,065 8.4% $69,400
67 Taylor 6,281 6.7% $155,500
68 Forest Hills 6,408 7.7% $144,000
69 Glenolden 7,187 4.3% $161,300
70 New Holland 5,743 3.8% $200,600
71 Swoyersville 5,020 5.6% $128,100
72 Pittsburgh 303,207 5.4% $147,600
73 Red Lion 6,478 0.6% $139,200
74 Carbondale 8,828 7.1% $97,900
75 Olyphant 5,359 3.1% $135,400
76 Ephrata 13,767 3.0% $175,200
77 Pottsville 13,413 9.4% $83,100
78 Columbia 10,243 4.0% $122,900
79 Norwood 5,920 10.3% $184,800
80 Pleasant Hills 8,454 4.6% $189,700
81 Swissvale 8,645 8.1% $116,100
82 Greensburg 14,982 7.4% $142,700
83 Franklin Park 15,239 5.3% $393,100
84 West York 5,038 6.1% $96,500
85 Manheim 5,036 4.5% $190,300
86 Sayre 5,484 7.3% $132,800
87 Plum 27,123 3.2% $170,900
88 Duryea 5,022 6.3% $114,800
89 West View 6,686 4.1% $153,500
90 Somerset 6,059 5.7% $116,600
91 Clearfield 5,991 7.3% $89,700
92 Exeter 5,516 3.3% $125,300
93 Lansdowne 11,007 6.9% $163,100
94 Williamsport 27,908 5.8% $117,300
95 Brookhaven 8,243 4.0% $222,200
96 Altoona 44,114 6.8% $95,500
97 New Brighton 5,743 6.3% $81,300
98 Bangor 5,203 5.5% $156,800
99 Ambridge 6,959 5.8% $80,300
100 Warren 9,363 5.9% $86,900

About Nick Johnson

Nick Johnson earned his masters in Business Administration from the Drucker School At Claremont Graduate University. He has written for 39 publications across the country and ran the media relations department at Movoto, a real estate portal based in San Francisco. He has been featured in over 500 publications as an expert in real estate and as an authority on real estate trends.

Nick's the creator of the HomeSnacks YouTube channel that now has over 260,000 subscribers and is an excellent source to learn about different parts of the country.

 Worst

52 thoughts on “The 10 Worst Places To Live In Pennsylvania For 2023”

  3. The facts are screwed from the get go. You’re comparing cities with different populations. I you compare a city with 20people with 6 crimes being committed of course is it going to be the worse, then a city with 30people with the same number of crimes. What you should be comparing is the nature of crimes. You can’t compare drunk and disorderly to a double homicide.

    Reply

  4. Shenandoah is a filthy blighted town. Crime rate is high. Drug arrests is common. Drug traffic is from reading, pa and NYC via latino community. Average home cost is 6000.00. there are so many abandoned homes .

    Tamaqua- this is a charming town. Homes are kept up. Downtown area is busy and has businesses. They have invested a lot of money into this town.

    I know…….I live near these areas

    Reply

  5. This article s a crock of you know what, nothing even mentioning Pittsburg. I’m sorry but Pittsburg should have at least made the list. Just someone’s written opinion, stats are one sided and not accurate .

    Reply

    1. McKeesport, Duquesne, Johnstown, and Clairton. All of these towns surround Pittsburgh. There, you got Pittsburgh.

      Reply

  6. Hi, Just a FYI not that it really matters but THAT IS NOT A PHOTO OF CORRY! I understand the rating I was born here grew up here ~ IT has just recently become quite crappy. The picture you have of it is not Corry, if you need one for you’re story I can send you one. But that is not ANY location in Corry.
    As for crime , are you taking petty crime? Not much crime here can’t remember the last time they had a murder.

    Reply

  7. Yep, the great W-B area is pretty bad now. A.K.A Dodge City. Thanks to all the peeps coming in from god knows where. So if these peeps stop coming to Wilkes-Barre and “Ruining” it for everyone who has been living there maybe it could be a better place. Unbelievable what a pit it has become thanks to the all the disrespectful outsiders coming in thinking they found a place to litter,loot and commit all their crime. We have enough problems here and don’t need anymore. It is going to take many more years to fix the problems that are at hand already, Heyna!!! Lol!!!

    Reply

  8. I’m not so convinced that “population density” should be given the weight it is in your numbers, as it is the metric most open to unscientific assumptions and radical interpretation. “Better= more things to do indoors” seems to be quite an associative leap, as many high-poverty/high-population-density communities across the country can attest. Urban food deserts and cultural wastelands with faltering transportation infrastructure that seem to illustrate that any such “things to do” assumption is a fallacy.

    Additionally, where boundaries are drawn matters significantly. In central PA, many towns are nestled in valleys between mountain ridges that lack development opportunities and hinder travel, making them densely-packed islands without the ability to access opportunities in adjacent resources. These “dense, but isolated” spots would be rated high for their density, despite their lack of any substantive “indoor thing to do” besides hang out at the walmart Friday nights. Yet, this community would be rated higher than one in the rolling foothills with well-planned parkland and ample infrastructure that would residents travel twice as far in half the time, allowing them to choose between hanging out at their local walmart on Friday nights or the one in the next town over…

    Finally, when I look at the numbers for a region like “Pittsburgh”, your population count suggests you’re using the MSA or CSA data. In Pittsburgh’s case, that includes several counties’ worth of data that can take considerable time to traverse, represent some of the most distressed towns in the state and some of the most affluent. Comparing that, in aggregate, seems absurd enough, but by using density as a positive metric like this, a small, rather isolated town like Lewisburg higher, as “more likely to have indoor stuff to do” than a town where you can’t go more than 90 feet in any direction without going past a bar/club/restaurant-that-mostly-serves-alcohol sporting “Stillers” jerseys in the windows?”

    Reply

  9. You are trying to compare apples and oranges. I live in the Rhone section of Nanticoke, and have for several years now. We still get together in the winter and help each other shovel snow, sit on the porch and have a chat with a neighbor, and wave a friendly hello when you see folk on the street. You assume that if there’s not a ton of things to do entertainment-wise indoors that this counts against us. We in the rural areas don’t need a club and a meal at some fancy restaurant to have fun. How about a picnic at the park with your neighbors, where the kids can play together in the fresh air (gasp!) unplugged from video games. Family hiking, swimming, biking, cross country skiing, there things shouldn’t count against us. I would rather live here where I can take my dog for a walk around the block at 2 am if I want without having to worry about being mugged, thanks. If I want to go to a huge museum, I have a car, and I drive there, but I can’t wait to get back to the small town I call home.

    Reply

  10. I grew up in Corry and go back anytime I can. That #7 picture isn’t Corry either we don’t have the streets painted on the road.

    Reply

    1. How dumb can you get? The street notations on the roadway are from Google maps images. They aren’t “painted” on the street. I use to have to travel to Corry as I had an account there, it is as bad as they say. The home town I grew up in in PA is depressing, the jobs have been exported to China and Mexico, the middle class has been decimated, drugs and crime are rampant, it’s not the Beaver Cleaver neighborhood I grew up in. I’m sure for those that stayed the changes are more gradual, but step away for 10-20 years and come back and it can be morbidly depressing. I have relatives still in PA, they wouldn’t think of moving, they think the door will shut behind them and they won’t be able to get back. News Flash- We have things called airplanes and airports, you can be just about anywhere in the U.S in 4-5 hours, and actually get back. There is a huge awesome country out there with lots of great places to visit or live at.

      Reply

  12. it’s a real shame xenophobia isn’t measured for places because then you get the double whammy of horrible adaptation to post industrial economy + “it’s those brown peoples’ fault”

    Reply

  13. Crime rates are skewed in places with a large amount of commercial development. That is the case for Dickson City. It does not have a large population, but it does have a great deal of commercial development. When the crimes are divided by the residents, it appears to have a high rate. However, most of that crime is probably in the shopping centers, etc., and not committed against local residents.

    Reply

  14. I agree that Tamaqua does not deserve to be on the list.

    I’m also not convinced that the Hazelton Area has the 3rd worst school district in the state.

    Reply

  15. So, in the PA version of this list, population density is a good thing. In the NJ, population density is a bad thing. Keep your story straight!

    Reply

  16. Lived in Lebanon, Pa. I lived in Philadelphia. I now live in Clearfield, PA. I will tell you that you are all wet with your evaluations. Most of the unemployment problems you cite are due to the demise of heavy industries and the governmental murder of the anthracite and soft coal mining industry. Sorry premise rejected, your urban prejudices are showing.

    Reply

  18. I would personally like to scrutinize the author and this article. Science and data used to compile this list is laughable. There appear to be no real guidelines or perspective with regards to population, size of municipality nor true fact dogging.
    Tamaqua alone offers all TAHS graduates two free years of continued education. That fact alone skews the education dynamic.
    Furthermore, Tamaqua borough is not the line qualifier for the school district, as it also takes in students from West Penn, Schuylkill, Walker and Rush Township. Those areas have larger lot sizes and represent contributing incomes, quality of life and community sponsorship.
    I find this article to be vastly weakened by the comment science and data used. I also regret losing the 20 mins. In reading and replying, as I will never recoup those.
    Shame, shame.

    Reply

  19. Tsk. So many people bothered by the fact that they’re told their home city is a pit? Let’s face it; the smtartest move is to leave Pennsylvania as soon as someone is of age.

    Instead of complaining about it, maybe if there were more things for younger generations to actually DO around the towns, they wouldn’t have to turn to getting enjoyment through destroying the area. It was an issue when I was growing up, and now, this is the result after multiple generations. If any — any — of the areas mentioned above were to embrace change rather than desperately hang on to a bygone era of “better times” and look to the future, this wouldn’t be a complete reality.

    It’s a pretty sad state when the biggest conversation on this list is about getting the “right” pictures or who has a Sheetz closest to them! For god sake, let it go. Grow, dammit! Stop living in the boomtown years; they’re gone. Over. Ended. Kaput.

    The state is dead or dying; don’t drag down several generations with it, as well.

    Reply

    1. Agree completely, the only “industry” left is political corruption. I left 30 years ago for better opportunities and found them. No State Income tax, lower cost of living, paid $1.24 for gas a few months ago. I haven’t had a front end alignment for 30 years and my cars don’t rust out, not to mention enduring long, cold and snowy winters. There are many great places to live in this county, I don’t get the myopic view that you can’t leave home. When I left PA I decided if I didn’t like it where I was going, the highways go in both directions in the country (yes…it’s true) so I could point the car north and hit the gas if I didn’t like it. Not sure why people are afraid to try something new or find better places to exist.

      Reply

  20. Interesting, but woefully incomplete.
    It is nice to see the Pittsburgh area fares well, but there are many municipalities missing particularly in the suburbs, like Allison Park, McCandless, Richland, Pine, etc.
    Are we to assume that they are good, bad, or somewhere in the middle?
    Try again.

    Reply

  23. Really? I would put Centralia at the top of the list! Underground coal mine fire spewing toxic gases, and causing most of the town’s residents to evacuate? Almost literally hell on earth!

    Reply

  24. Heh…

    I live in the Parsons section of Wilkes-Barre, and I totally disagree with this list. Wilkes-Barre at number four? Please. It should be at number one or two. It’s a rotting cesspool of drugs, corruption, and violence. There’s no way Nanticoke beats Wilkes-Barre – all the murders, stabbings, and shootings alone make this a much worse place to be.

    Reply

  26. Over the years the one consistent thing that I have always heard from anyone who has visited my former hometown of Johnstown, PA is, “oh my God, Johnstown is soooooo damn depressing.” It’s like no other description is available. One size fits all I guess.

    Reply

  27. Yeah well you take a bunch of these coal mining towns and people with low incomes and then you see people like Hillary Clinton wanting to give socialism a new try where do you think all these new state prisons are located in the old dilapidated towns

    Reply

  28. Johnstown should be #1. at least in new castle you have brand new highway infrastructure to get you to other areas for jobs. johnstown doesnt have anything

    Reply

  29. I hate to pick on any one town. Most of Pennsylvania, as someone mentioned previously, has been left to die off as major corporations have moved out, the coal industry is on its death bed–looks that way–and even our own politicians have forgotten those who live in small town Pennsylvania. When I think back to what once was–because I don’t see any salvation. One city in Western Pennsylvania’s Mercer County
    looks as if a bomb was dropped and just allowed to continue to rot. Politicians who continually line there own pockets with tax money just don’t care. I could go on and on.

    Reply

  30. I am totally shocked Lansford and Coaldale are not on the list. Lansford has many abandon buildings. Hardly any stores. As well as Coaldale .

    Reply

  31. Why are we discussing the “worst” cities in any state. There is poverty and crime everywhere. No need to embarrass the residents who live there. Am I missing something?

    Reply

  32. “Corry, PA is an isolated place along Route 6 near the New York state line.”

    Poor research! Taking bare stats at face value tells one little about an area’s features.

    Corry is right on Route 6 as you at least did mention and Downtown Corry is less than one mile off Route 6. Corry is a very historic area geographically and economically with rich history dating back to 1861.

    Given that Route 6 is a major east-west historic corridor, Corry is hardly isolated. In fact, stats show that Corry is in fact within 500 miles of approximately half the population of the US and there is an International airport within 45 minutes of Corry.

    There is so much more to Corry that I don’t have time to go into here. I suggest people spend some time researching Corry online as it is worth a visit for anyone passing by on Route 6.

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  33. I left outside of Allentown in 96- burbs outside of Phila and ccity and mainline and bucks Cnty nice – everything else is pensyltucky

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    1. Do not move to PA !!! I moved away after highschool lived a wonderful life being away. Came back to PA after death in family and been here for last 6 mnths and I’m so depressed. The people are no it all cocky and cut throat in the workplace. They show 0 respect. It is well appealing. As for the atmosphere and the weather well I’m ready to move back to New Jersey, or back down south to the coastal areas. Before any PA residents start sharing at the mouth think again I’m a bucks county naitive. PA is a disgrace.

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      1. Politicans on the state and local levels have raped and pillaged our communities and our citizens for years. Shame!! Same!! Shame!!

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      2. I’m a former PA resident (lived there for ~30 years). I moved to a completely different state in a much more urban area, and I cannot describe to you how beneficial this change has been for me. The only good things I can really say about Pennsylvania are that it’s a beautiful state, and that it has many amazing historical sites and state parks/forests.

        Having lived there for as long as I did – in a very, very rural area – I learned quickly that most of the people I interacted with are closed-minded and judgmental. Yes, there are people like that everywhere, but with the isolation that is well-accepted with living rurally, you face dealing with people like this day in and day out. It has been so much more relieving to live in an urban area. Although this state is still a Red state, people here are, as a whole, much more open-minded, willing to think about your opinions instead of telling you that you’re flat out wrong if you disagree with them, etc.

        I love some things about PA. But I’m so glad that I moved. I hope to never move back.

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  35. All of these cities keep voting democrat hoping to get free stuff, instead they get drugs, illegal aliens and corrupt politicians.

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  36. Why do you have a Google Maps screenshot of Oakland, CA at 0:26 in your video? I mean, the Tribune Tavern building in the background is a dead giveaway.

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  37. I lived in Shenandoah my whole life and, like other towns around us, the inner city has found us. You can not control who moves into your community. Every community has a right to be destroyed. It cant all be safe and predominantly white like my town was in the 1980s.

    Industry has been exported and poverty has been imported. One day, your town will be on this list

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  38. I’m sorry but Philadelphia definitely should have been on that list if Darby and reading was cause the murder rate and homeless rate is at a all time high.The unemployment rate is very high. The property value is high as well.The education is horrible.The drug problem is outta control. I feel like you should be based on facts. I moved from Philadelphia to Johnstown pa. I got more help here in Johnstown then I ever got living in Philadelphia for 28 years.For it to be a big city it’s very poor as well.

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  39. I look forward to your list ,as my birth city where I continue to live usually ranks high on worse place to live ,while ranking high on Forbes best place to raise a family .This year it appears Wilkes barre pa was negated from all list .What does this mean ? Is it being concidered for ultimate place to live in pa ???

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  40. I would like to hear some amazing things about Pennsylvania. I’ve been researching places to live and PA was ranking pretty high on the list I’ve compiled for retirement purposes! It depends on what one calls good…but darn it, PA sounds like it’s ALL bad! Doesn’t someone have a sales pitch?

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    1. I moved from Western PA to Ohio 12 years ago and miss it everyday. There are so many wonderful people who live in there. Every town in every state has drug problems and theft. There are lots of great towns. You have to visit the towns and talk to the people who actually live there. Yes there are lots of towns which I would not go into but that could be said of every state in the United States.

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  42. Pennsylvania is a giant suckhole. Pittsburgh & Philly? Nasty, dirty, dangerous cities. Fracking has ruined all of the rural areas. Go hiking in the ‘pennsylvania wilds’ and enjoy tripping over countless, abandoned & uncapped frack-wells. If you’re real lucky, you’ll catch Lyme disease & the many co-infections spread by the plum-island ticks. Most of us here have Lyme. Seriously. There are no health freedoms. Try finding a natural health practitioner. Into anything that is even slightly unusual? It ain’t here.The pollution is God-awful in these rural, oil refinery towns. We USED to enjoy camping/hiking before all of the water & land became so polluted. Erie, Pa is HIGHLY polluted with the lake so polluted by glyphosate, it’s killing the dogs who swim in it. There are many many bars with hardened & nasty patrons who hate their own lives and also will hate you. Lived back here for 13 years and am desperately trying to find a way OUT again. The only jobs available are minimum wage or factory jobs that are torturous. The rents are high & gas at the pumps, the highest in the US. If you’re considering moving to PA, think again. These aren’t just people complaining. I could go on forever with reasons why, not to move here. Save yourselves. DON’T move to Pennsylvania.

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