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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 Anaheim.
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 Anaheim 'burbs need a little tender loving care - the sore thumbs of the Anaheim area if you will. Realistically, you can't expect all the suburbs to live up to Anaheim proper, although South Pasadena certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Anaheim are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 103 biggest suburbs of Anaheim to find out the worst places to live. And while you won't necessarily find them on the worst places to live in California lists, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Anaheim in terms of quality of life.
Here are the 10 worst suburbs around Anaheim for 2022:
What's the worst suburb of Anaheim? Rialto ranks as the worst suburb of Anaheim for 2022 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Anaheim that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don't blame the messenger.
Or, if you're thinking of moving to elsewhere in California check out the best places in California overall or the worst.
And remember, there are some good places to live around Anaheim 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 California reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In California
- Cheapest Places To Live In California
- Most Dangerous Cities In California
The 10 Worst Anaheim Suburbs To Live For 2022
We'll get the ball rolling with Rialto, the absolute worst place to live around Anaheim according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Rialto beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 24th worst in the Anaheim area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 6th 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 Rialto.
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 Huntington Park. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 27.6 miles to Anaheim. Income levels here are the 4th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $46,738 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 Anaheim suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Cudahy 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 Anaheim suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
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If you live in Compton, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 16th lowest Anaheim suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the 4th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Anaheim. Remember, we looked at 103 cities for this study.
Compton is about 26.9 miles to downtown.
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5. Lakeland
Lakeland has the distinction of being a Anaheim suburb. Which means that's about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Lakeland has the 2nd lowest home values in the metro Anaheim area, where the median price is $160,400. To put that into perspective, in South Pasadena, the median income is $164,476, which is the best in the area.
Lakeland has an unemployment rate of 6.21% which ranks 35th worst.
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Population: 110,335
Rank Last Year: 8 (Up 3)
Median Income: $50,136 (6th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 6.2% (35th highest)
Median Home Value: $160,400 (2nd lowest)
More on Lakeland:
Commerce has 12,738 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 11.439904799682665%.
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Ah, Bell Gardens. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Anaheim.
It's the place with the 29th most out of work residents in the Anaheim metro area (6.47%).
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Lynwood is a city about 25.7 miles from Anaheim, but Anaheim 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. Lynwood has the 4th most uninsured people, 14th worst incomes, and has the 3rd highest unemployment rate (9.68%) in the entire Anaheim metro area.
Homes only cost $422,200 for a reason. That's cheap for Anaheim standards.
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If you absolutely have to live near Anaheim, then Colton might be a place for you to consider as it's only the 9th worst Anaheim suburb.
About 6.75% of residents are out of work.
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Rounding out the ten worst Anaheim suburbs to call home is Bell.
Located 25.5 miles outside the city, Bells is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 10th highest unemployment rate (7.63%), and poverty is far above the area average.
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Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Anaheim 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 Anaheim.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 3,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 103 suburbs to evaluate around Anaheim.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 103 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 Anaheim." We're lookin' at you, Rialto. 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 Anaheim where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2022
Well there you have it -- the worst of the 'burbs surrounding Anaheim with Rialto casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Anaheim aren't all bad. South Pasadena takes the cake as the best place to live around Anaheim.
- South Pasadena
- Newport Beach
- Yorba Linda
For more California reading, check out:
- Best Places To Retire In California
- Richest Cities In California
- Safest Places In California
- Worst Places To Live In California
Detailed List Of The Worst Anaheim Suburbs
Rank | City | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Rialto | 103,549 |
2 | Huntington Park | 57,761 |
3 | Cudahy | 23,606 |
4 | Compton | 95,804 |
5 | Lakeland | 110,335 |
6 | Commerce | 12,738 |
7 | Bell Gardens | 41,770 |
8 | Lynwood | 69,625 |
9 | Colton | 54,215 |
10 | Bell | 35,301 |
11 | Montclair | 40,041 |
12 | Maywood | 27,127 |
13 | Jurupa Valley | 106,646 |
14 | Lake Elsinore | 64,201 |
15 | South Gate | 94,905 |
16 | Ontario | 178,194 |
17 | Pomona | 151,124 |
18 | South El Monte | 20,791 |
19 | Paramount | 53,949 |
20 | El Monte | 113,917 |
21 | Riverside | 327,569 |
22 | Azusa | 49,584 |
23 | Stanton | 38,317 |
24 | La Puente | 39,780 |
25 | Montebello | 62,697 |
26 | Fontana | 212,704 |
27 | Bellflower | 76,339 |
28 | Hawaiian Gardens | 14,212 |
29 | Baldwin Park | 75,659 |
30 | Duarte | 21,399 |
31 | Long Beach | 462,081 |
32 | Santa Ana | 332,610 |
33 | Chino | 89,170 |
34 | Westminster | 90,857 |
35 | Grand Terrace | 12,559 |
36 | Santa Fe Springs | 17,643 |
37 | Carson | 91,354 |
38 | Rosemead | 53,850 |
39 | Norwalk | 104,524 |
40 | Garden Grove | 172,800 |
41 | La Habra | 62,787 |
42 | Covina | 47,787 |
43 | Pico Rivera | 62,507 |
44 | Los Alamitos | 11,521 |
45 | Midway | 3,132 |
46 | Corona | 168,112 |
47 | Monterey Park | 60,597 |
48 | Temple | 4,709 |
49 | Fullerton | 141,061 |
50 | Upland | 77,348 |
51 | Downey | 111,263 |
52 | Artesia | 16,456 |
53 | Laguna Woods | 16,056 |
54 | Signal Hill | 11,430 |
55 | Whittier | 84,821 |
56 | West Covina | 105,808 |
57 | San Gabriel | 40,108 |
58 | Monrovia | 37,636 |
59 | Norco | 27,021 |
60 | La Verne | 32,346 |
61 | Buena Park | 82,228 |
62 | Rancho Cucamonga | 178,060 |
63 | Costa Mesa | 112,958 |
64 | Alhambra | 84,509 |
65 | Glendora | 51,087 |
66 | Orange | 139,322 |
67 | Tustin | 80,815 |
68 | Seal Beach | 24,268 |
69 | San Dimas | 33,812 |
70 | San Juan Capistrano | 35,976 |
71 | Chino Hills | 82,800 |
72 | Fountain Valley | 56,118 |
73 | Irvine | 272,694 |
74 | La Mirada | 48,260 |
75 | Claremont | 35,610 |
76 | Lakewood | 79,676 |
77 | Brea | 44,182 |
78 | Lake Forest | 84,666 |
79 | Placentia | 52,049 |
80 | Laguna Hills | 31,613 |
81 | Huntington Beach | 199,778 |
82 | Diamond Bar | 55,870 |
83 | Walnut | 29,764 |
84 | Arcadia | 57,053 |
85 | Laguna Beach | 22,991 |
86 | Cypress | 49,137 |
87 | Laguna Niguel | 65,048 |
88 | Eastvale | 65,766 |
89 | El Cerrito | 25,280 |
90 | La Habra Heights | 5,318 |
91 | Sierra Madre | 10,829 |
92 | Cerritos | 49,388 |
93 | San Clemente | 64,929 |
94 | Dana Point | 33,782 |
95 | Rancho Santa Margarita | 48,280 |
96 | Villa Park | 5,883 |
97 | Aliso Viejo | 50,385 |
98 | San Marino | 13,020 |
99 | Mission Viejo | 95,638 |
100 | La Palma | 15,657 |