These Are The 10 Worst Providence Suburbs

Providence 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 Providence.

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

We examined the 23 biggest suburbs of Providence to find out the worst places to live. And while you won’t find them on the worst places to live in Rhode Island, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Providence in terms of quality of life:

1. Pascoag
2. Fall River
3. Pawtucket
4. Central Falls
5. Woonsocket
6. East Providence
7. Cranston
8. Warwick
9. North Seekonk
10. Newport East

Read on to see how we determined the places around Providence 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 Providence ‘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 Providence 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 Providence.

Read on below to learn more about these terrible places around Providence to live. Or skip to the end to see the list of all 23 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. Pascoag

Population: 4,310
Median Income: $48,688
Median Home Value: $197,900

2. Fall River

Population: 88,756
Median Income: $33,763
Median Home Value: $234,500

3. Pawtucket

Population: 71,313
Median Income: $40,578
Median Home Value: $174,100

4. Central Falls

Population: 19,406
Median Income: $28,842
Median Home Value: $160,500

5. Woonsocket

Population: 41,136
Median Income: $35,216
Median Home Value: $168,200

6. East Providence

Population: 47,166
Median Income: $51,077
Median Home Value: $216,000

7. Cranston

Population: 80,680
Median Income: $58,684
Median Home Value: $217,100

8. Warwick

Population: 82,065
Median Income: $62,803
Median Home Value: $198,200

9. North Seekonk

Population: 2,660
Median Income: $63,267
Median Home Value: $251,600

10. Newport East

Population: 10,953
Median Income: $64,012
Median Home Value: $304,000

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

Well there you have it — the worst of the ‘burbs surrounding Providence with Pascoag landing ahead of the pack.

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

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

• These Are The 10 Best Places To Live In Rhode Island
• These Are The 10 Most Dangerous Cities In Rhode Island
• These Are The 10 Most Redneck Cities In Rhode Island

Detailed List Of Providence Suburbs