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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 Fontana.
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 Fontana 'burbs need a little tender loving care - the sore thumbs of the Fontana area if you will. Realistically, you can't expect all the suburbs to live up to Fontana proper, although Yorba Linda certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Fontana are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 44 biggest suburbs of Fontana 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 Fontana in terms of quality of life.
Here are the 10 worst suburbs around Fontana for 2022:
What's the worst suburb of Fontana? Hesperia ranks as the worst suburb of Fontana for 2022 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Fontana 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 Fontana 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 Fontana Suburbs To Live For 2022
We'll get the ball rolling with Hesperia, the absolute worst place to live around Fontana according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Hesperia beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 2nd worst in the Fontana area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 3rd 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 Hesperia.
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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Population: 95,163
Rank Last Year: 2 (Up 1)
Median Income: $54,149 (2nd lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 9.3% (3rd highest)
Median Home Value: $255,500 (3rd lowest)
More on Hesperia: Data
Welcome to San Bernardino. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 9.9 miles to Fontana. Income levels here are the lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $49,287 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 Fontana suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Victorville 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 Fontana suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
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If you live in Perris, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 13th lowest Fontana suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the 14th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Fontana. Remember, we looked at 44 cities for this study.
Perris is about 26.0 miles to downtown.
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Rialto has the distinction of being a Fontana suburb. Which means that's about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Rialto has the 7th lowest home values in the metro Fontana area, where the median price is $330,000. To put that into perspective, in Yorba Linda, the median income is $164,476, which is the best in the area.
Rialto has an unemployment rate of 10.63% which ranks 2nd worst.
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Highland has 55,339 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 16.579206297146605%.
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Ah, Colton. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Fontana.
It's the place with the 15th most out of work residents in the Fontana metro area (6.75%).
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Montclair is a city about 13.7 miles from Fontana, but Fontana 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. Montclair has the 2nd most uninsured people, 9th worst incomes, and has the 12th highest unemployment rate (7.21%) in the entire Fontana metro area.
Homes only cost $388,100 for a reason. That's cheap for Fontana standards.
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If you absolutely have to live near Fontana, then Jurupa Valley might be a place for you to consider as it's only the 9th worst Fontana suburb.
About 7.43% of residents are out of work.
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Population: 106,646
Rank Last Year: 6 (Down 3)
Median Income: $77,787 (22nd lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 7.4% (11th highest)
Median Home Value: $393,200 (15th lowest)
More on Jurupa Valley: Data
Rounding out the ten worst Fontana suburbs to call home is Moreno Valley.
Located 19.5 miles outside the city, Moreno Valleys is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 5th highest unemployment rate (8.27%), and poverty is far above the area average.
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Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Fontana 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 Fontana.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 5,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 44 suburbs to evaluate around Fontana.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 44 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 Fontana." We're lookin' at you, Hesperia. 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 Fontana where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2022
Well there you have it -- the worst of the 'burbs surrounding Fontana with Hesperia casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Fontana aren't all bad. Yorba Linda takes the cake as the best place to live around Fontana.
- Yorba Linda
- Villa Park
- El Cerrito
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 Fontana Suburbs
Rank | City | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Hesperia | 95,163 |
2 | San Bernardino | 216,784 |
3 | Victorville | 122,958 |
4 | Perris | 77,708 |
5 | Rialto | 103,549 |
6 | Highland | 55,339 |
7 | Colton | 54,215 |
8 | Montclair | 40,041 |
9 | Jurupa Valley | 106,646 |
10 | Moreno Valley | 208,751 |
11 | Pomona | 151,124 |
12 | Loma Linda | 24,239 |
13 | Ontario | 178,194 |
14 | La Puente | 39,780 |
15 | Riverside | 327,569 |
16 | Baldwin Park | 75,659 |
17 | Azusa | 49,584 |
18 | Calimesa | 9,156 |
19 | Duarte | 21,399 |
20 | Yucaipa | 54,358 |
21 | Chino | 89,170 |
22 | Anaheim | 353,085 |
23 | Redlands | 71,680 |
24 | Grand Terrace | 12,559 |
25 | Covina | 47,787 |
26 | Corona | 168,112 |
27 | Upland | 77,348 |
28 | West Covina | 105,808 |
29 | Norco | 27,021 |
30 | Glendora | 51,087 |
31 | La Verne | 32,346 |
32 | Rancho Cucamonga | 178,060 |
33 | San Dimas | 33,812 |
34 | Chino Hills | 82,800 |
35 | Claremont | 35,610 |
36 | Placentia | 52,049 |
37 | La Habra Heights | 5,318 |
38 | Walnut | 29,764 |
39 | Brea | 44,182 |
40 | Eastvale | 65,766 |
41 | Diamond Bar | 55,870 |
42 | El Cerrito | 25,280 |
43 | Villa Park | 5,883 |
44 | Yorba Linda | 68,103 |