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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 Greensboro.
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 Greensboro 'burbs need a little tender loving care - the sore thumbs of the Greensboro area if you will. Realistically, you can't expect all the suburbs to live up to Greensboro proper, although Oak Ridge certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Greensboro are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 28 biggest suburbs of Greensboro to find out the worst places to live. And while you won't necessarily find them on the worst places to live in north carolina lists, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Greensboro in terms of quality of life.
Here are the 10 worst suburbs around Greensboro for 2021:
What's the worst suburb of Greensboro? Liberty ranks as the worst suburb of Greensboro for 2021 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Greensboro that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don't blame the messenger.
Or, if you're thinking of moving to elsewhere in north carolina check out the best places in north carolina overall or the worst.
And remember, there are some good places to live around Greensboro 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 North Carolina reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In North Carolina
- Cheapest Places To Live In North Carolina
- Most Dangerous Cities In North Carolina
The 10 Worst Greensboro Suburbs To Live For 2021
/10
Population: 2,662
Rank Last Year: 1 (No Change)
Median Income: $38,958 (7th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 7.3% (5th highest)
Median Home Value: $110,500 (6th lowest)
More on Liberty: Data
We'll get the ball rolling with Liberty, the absolute worst place to live around Greensboro according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Liberty beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 7th worst in the Greensboro 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 Liberty.
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.
/10
Welcome to Reidsville. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 18.9 miles to Greensboro. Income levels here are the 2nd lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $32,339 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.
/10
Back up the highway we go for the third worst Greensboro suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Eden 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 Greensboro suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
/10
Population: 2,508
Rank Last Year: 3 (Down 1)
Median Income: $27,614 (lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 10.3% (highest)
Median Home Value: $91,100 (3rd lowest)
More on Mayodan: Data
If you live in Mayodan, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the lowest Greensboro suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Greensboro. Remember, we looked at 28 cities for this study.
Mayodan is about 23.9 miles to downtown.
/10
Asheboro has the distinction of being a Greensboro suburb. Which means that's about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Asheboro has the 9th lowest home values in the metro Greensboro area, where the median price is $120,900. To put that into perspective, in Oak Ridge, the median income is $127,578, which is the best in the area.
Asheboro has an unemployment rate of 6.06% which ranks 10th worst.
/10
Population: 2,129
Rank Last Year: 2 (Down 4)
Median Income: $36,856 (5th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 4.5% (17th highest)
Median Home Value: $78,500 (lowest)
More on Green Level: Data
Green Level has 2,129 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 20.018930430667297%.
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Ah, Thomasville. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Greensboro.
It's the place with the 9th most out of work residents in the Greensboro metro area (6.28%).
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Graham is a city about 24.6 miles from Greensboro, but Greensboro 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. Graham has the 7th most uninsured people, 4th worst incomes, and has the 15th highest unemployment rate (4.93%) in the entire Greensboro metro area.
Homes only cost $133,800 for a reason. That's cheap for Greensboro standards.
/10
Population: 2,347
Rank Last Year: 9 (No Change)
Median Income: $44,560 (11th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 4.9% (16th highest)
Median Home Value: $114,200 (7th lowest)
More on Madison: Data
If you absolutely have to live near Greensboro, then Madison might be a place for you to consider as it's only the 9th worst Greensboro suburb.
About 4.86% of residents are out of work.
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Rounding out the ten worst Greensboro suburbs to call home is Burlington.
Located 20.0 miles outside the city, Burlingtons is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 7th highest unemployment rate (6.57%), and poverty is far above the area average.
Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Greensboro 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 Greensboro.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 28 suburbs to evaluate around Greensboro.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 28 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 Greensboro." We're lookin' at you, Liberty. 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 Greensboro where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2021
Well there you have it -- the worst of the 'burbs surrounding Greensboro with Liberty casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Greensboro aren't all bad. Oak Ridge takes the cake as the best place to live around Greensboro.
- Oak Ridge
- Summerfield
- Elon
For more North Carolina reading, check out:
- Best Places To Retire In North Carolina
- Richest Cities In North Carolina
- Safest Cities in North Carolina
- Worst Places To Live In North Carolina
Detailed List Of The Worst Greensboro Suburbs
Rank | City | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Liberty | 2,662 |
2 | Reidsville | 13,915 |
3 | Eden | 15,055 |
4 | Mayodan | 2,508 |
5 | Asheboro | 25,852 |
6 | Green Level | 2,129 |
7 | Thomasville | 26,784 |
8 | Graham | 14,925 |
9 | Madison | 2,347 |
10 | Burlington | 53,063 |
11 | Wentworth | 2,730 |
12 | Haw River | 2,458 |
13 | Winston-Salem | 244,115 |
14 | High Point | 111,714 |
15 | Midway | 4,840 |
16 | Trinity | 6,579 |
17 | Archdale | 11,510 |
18 | Kernersville | 24,576 |
19 | Randleman | 4,101 |
20 | Rural Hall | 3,188 |
21 | Jamestown | 15,289 |
22 | Gibsonville | 7,127 |
23 | Stokesdale | 5,396 |
24 | Pleasant Garden | 4,837 |
25 | Wallburg | 3,053 |
26 | Elon | 11,516 |
27 | Summerfield | 11,151 |
28 | Oak Ridge | 6,901 |