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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 Arlington.
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 Arlington 'burbs need a little tender loving care - the sore thumbs of the Arlington area if you will. Realistically, you can't expect all the suburbs to live up to Arlington proper, although Falls Church certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Arlington are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 34 biggest suburbs of Arlington to find out the worst places to live. And while you won't necessarily find them on the worst places to live in virginia lists, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Arlington in terms of quality of life.
What's the worst suburb of Arlington? Dumfries ranks as the worst suburb of Arlington for 2021 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Arlington that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don't blame the messenger.
Or, if you're thinking of moving to elsewhere in virginia check out the best places in virginia overall or the worst.
And remember, there are some good places to live around Arlington 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 Virginia reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In Virginia
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- Most Dangerous Cities In Virginia
The 10 Worst Arlington Suburbs To Live For 2021
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We'll get the ball rolling with Dumfries, the absolute worst place to live around Arlington according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Dumfries beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 4th worst in the Arlington area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 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 Dumfries.
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.
2. Riverdale Park
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Population: 7,198
Rank Last Year: 3 (Up 1)
Median Income: $79,219 (12th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 6.1% (9th highest)
Median Home Value: $328,600 (15th lowest)
More on Riverdale Park:
Welcome to Riverdale Park. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 11.1 miles to Arlington. Income levels here are the 12th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $79,219 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.
3. Capitol Heights
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Population: 4,528
Rank Last Year: 2 (Down 1)
Median Income: $70,919 (8th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 8.2% (4th highest)
Median Home Value: $226,200 (5th lowest)
More on Capitol Heights:
Back up the highway we go for the third worst Arlington suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Capitol Heights 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 Arlington suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
4. Bladensburg
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Population: 9,402
Rank Last Year: 5 (Up 1)
Median Income: $44,905 (lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 7.3% (5th highest)
Median Home Value: $255,100 (7th lowest)
More on Bladensburg:
If you live in Bladensburg, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the lowest Arlington suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the 5th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Arlington. Remember, we looked at 34 cities for this study.
Bladensburg is about 10.4 miles to downtown.
5. Seat Pleasant
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Population: 4,739
Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 1)
Median Income: $55,370 (2nd lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 9.8% (3rd highest)
Median Home Value: $208,700 (2nd lowest)
More on Seat Pleasant:
Seat Pleasant has the distinction of being a Arlington suburb. Which means that's about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Seat Pleasant has the 2nd lowest home values in the metro Arlington area, where the median price is $208,700. To put that into perspective, in Falls Church, the median income is $180,524, which is the best in the area.
Seat Pleasant has an unemployment rate of 9.76% which ranks 3rd worst.
6. Greenbelt
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Population: 23,219
Rank Last Year: 7 (Up 1)
Median Income: $71,734 (9th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 5.2% (14th highest)
Median Home Value: $227,400 (6th lowest)
More on Greenbelt:
Greenbelt has 23,219 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 10.230709409833231%.
7. New Carrollton
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Population: 12,935
Rank Last Year: 6 (No Change)
Median Income: $66,991 (6th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 10.9% (2nd highest)
Median Home Value: $271,100 (9th lowest)
More on New Carrollton:
Ah, New Carrollton. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Arlington.
It's the place with the 2nd most out of work residents in the Arlington metro area (10.9%).
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Manassas is a city about 22.5 miles from Arlington, but Arlington 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. Manassas has the 5th most uninsured people, 13th worst incomes, and has the 15th highest unemployment rate (4.99%) in the entire Arlington metro area.
Homes only cost $324,600 for a reason. That's cheap for Arlington standards.
9. Brentwood
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Population: 3,476
Rank Last Year: 16 (Up 7)
Median Income: $78,750 (11th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 4.3% (22nd highest)
Median Home Value: $298,600 (11th lowest)
More on Brentwood:
If you absolutely have to live near Arlington, then Brentwood might be a place for you to consider as it's only the 9th worst Arlington suburb.
About 4.33% of residents are out of work.
10. Forest Heights
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Population: 2,565
Rank Last Year: 11 (Up 1)
Median Income: $83,611 (15th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 11.4% (highest)
Median Home Value: $219,700 (3rd lowest)
More on Forest Heights:
Rounding out the ten worst Arlington suburbs to call home is Forest Heights.
Located 7.2 miles outside the city, Forest Heightss is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the highest unemployment rate (11.37%), and poverty is far above the area average.
Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Arlington for 2021
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 2015-2019, 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 Arlington.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 34 suburbs to evaluate around Arlington.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 34 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 Arlington." We're lookin' at you, Dumfries. 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.
The areas around Arlington where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2021
Well there you have it -- the worst of the 'burbs surrounding Arlington with Dumfries casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Arlington aren't all bad. Falls Church takes the cake as the best place to live around Arlington.
- Falls Church
- Kensington
- Vienna
For more Virginia reading, check out:
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Detailed List Of The Worst Arlington Suburbs
Rank | City | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Dumfries | 5,373 |
2 | Riverdale Park | 7,198 |
3 | Capitol Heights | 4,528 |
4 | Bladensburg | 9,402 |
5 | Seat Pleasant | 4,739 |
6 | Greenbelt | 23,219 |
7 | New Carrollton | 12,935 |
8 | Manassas | 41,174 |
9 | Brentwood | 3,476 |
10 | Forest Heights | 2,565 |
11 | Mount Rainier | 8,107 |
12 | Indian Head | 3,822 |
13 | College Park | 32,159 |
14 | Manassas Park | 16,986 |
15 | Hyattsville | 18,242 |
16 | Berwyn Heights | 3,273 |
17 | Laurel | 25,767 |
18 | Glenarden | 6,140 |
19 | Gaithersburg | 67,742 |
20 | Herndon | 24,532 |
21 | La Plata | 9,376 |
22 | Takoma Park | 17,672 |
23 | Cheverly | 6,435 |
24 | Washington | 692,683 |
25 | Fairfax | 23,531 |
26 | Leesburg | 52,994 |
27 | Rockville | 67,542 |
28 | Bowie | 58,481 |
29 | Alexandria | 157,613 |
30 | University Park | 2,651 |
31 | Poolesville | 5,191 |
32 | Vienna | 16,489 |
33 | Kensington | 2,098 |
34 | Falls Church | 14,128 |
This article is basically saying that Arlington has suburbs. Arlington doesn’t have Suburbs, because Arlington is a Suburb of Washington, DC. Arlington is right next to Washington, DC (obviously), and it’s a part of the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area. There is no such thing as the Arlington Metropolitan Area. Although Arlington is more urban than a lot of DC’s other suburbs.