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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 Huntington Beach.
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 Huntington Beach 'burbs need a little tender loving care - the sore thumbs of the Huntington Beach area if you will. Realistically, you can't expect all the suburbs to live up to Huntington Beach proper, although Hermosa Beach certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Huntington Beach are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 91 biggest suburbs of Huntington Beach 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 Huntington Beach in terms of quality of life.
Here are the 10 worst suburbs around Huntington Beach for 2022:
What's the worst suburb of Huntington Beach? Huntington Park ranks as the worst suburb of Huntington Beach for 2022 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Huntington Beach 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 Huntington Beach 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 Huntington Beach Suburbs To Live For 2022
We'll get the ball rolling with Huntington Park, the absolute worst place to live around Huntington Beach according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Huntington Park beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 4th worst in the Huntington Beach area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 11th 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 Huntington Park.
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 Cudahy. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 21.3 miles to Huntington Beach. Income levels here are the 2nd lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $46,279 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 Huntington Beach suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Commerce 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 Huntington Beach suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
/10
If you live in Compton, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 16th lowest Huntington Beach suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the 3rd worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Huntington Beach. Remember, we looked at 91 cities for this study.
Compton is about 18.8 miles to downtown.
/10
Bell Gardens has the distinction of being a Huntington Beach suburb. Which means that's about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Bell Gardens has the 6th lowest home values in the metro Huntington Beach area, where the median price is $402,600. To put that into perspective, in Hermosa Beach, the median income is $197,826, which is the best in the area.
Bell Gardens has an unemployment rate of 6.47% which ranks 24th worst.
/10
Lynwood has 69,625 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 16.148548722008933%.
/10
Ah, Bell. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Huntington Beach.
It's the place with the 6th most out of work residents in the Huntington Beach metro area (7.63%).
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Maywood is a city about 23.0 miles from Huntington Beach, but Huntington Beach 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. Maywood has the 5th most uninsured people, 6th worst incomes, and has the 18th highest unemployment rate (6.81%) in the entire Huntington Beach metro area.
Homes only cost $427,300 for a reason. That's cheap for Huntington Beach standards.
/10
If you absolutely have to live near Huntington Beach, then Pomona might be a place for you to consider as it's only the 9th worst Huntington Beach suburb.
About 6.29% of residents are out of work.
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Rounding out the ten worst Huntington Beach suburbs to call home is South El Monte.
Located 24.9 miles outside the city, South El Montes is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 33rd highest unemployment rate (5.7%), and poverty is far above the area average.
/10
Population: 20,791
Rank Last Year: 11 (Up 1)
Median Income: $54,208 (9th lowest)
Unemployment Rate: 5.7% (33rd highest)
Median Home Value: $452,700 (20th lowest)
More on South El Monte: Data
Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Huntington Beach 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 Huntington Beach.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 3,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 91 suburbs to evaluate around Huntington Beach.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 91 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 Huntington Beach." We're lookin' at you, Huntington Park. 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 Huntington Beach where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2022
Well there you have it -- the worst of the 'burbs surrounding Huntington Beach with Huntington Park casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Huntington Beach aren't all bad. Hermosa Beach takes the cake as the best place to live around Huntington Beach.
- Hermosa Beach
- Manhattan Beach
- Redondo Beach
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 Huntington Beach Suburbs
| Rank | City | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Park | 57,761 |
| 2 | Cudahy | 23,606 |
| 3 | Commerce | 12,738 |
| 4 | Compton | 95,804 |
| 5 | Bell Gardens | 41,770 |
| 6 | Lynwood | 69,625 |
| 7 | Bell | 35,301 |
| 8 | Maywood | 27,127 |
| 9 | Pomona | 151,124 |
| 10 | South El Monte | 20,791 |
| 11 | South Gate | 94,905 |
| 12 | Paramount | 53,949 |
| 13 | El Monte | 113,917 |
| 14 | Stanton | 38,317 |
| 15 | Montebello | 62,697 |
| 16 | La Puente | 39,780 |
| 17 | Inglewood | 109,309 |
| 18 | Bellflower | 76,339 |
| 19 | Hawaiian Gardens | 14,212 |
| 20 | Baldwin Park | 75,659 |
| 21 | Hawthorne | 85,410 |
| 22 | Lawndale | 32,533 |
| 23 | Santa Ana | 332,610 |
| 24 | Long Beach | 462,081 |
| 25 | Chino | 89,170 |
| 26 | Westminster | 90,857 |
| 27 | Anaheim | 353,085 |
| 28 | Carson | 91,354 |
| 29 | Santa Fe Springs | 17,643 |
| 30 | Rosemead | 53,850 |
| 31 | Garden Grove | 172,800 |
| 32 | Norwalk | 104,524 |
| 33 | Covina | 47,787 |
| 34 | La Habra | 62,787 |
| 35 | Gardena | 59,401 |
| 36 | Pico Rivera | 62,507 |
| 37 | Fullerton | 141,061 |
| 38 | Midway | 3,132 |
| 39 | Monterey Park | 60,597 |
| 40 | Corona | 168,112 |
| 41 | Los Alamitos | 11,521 |
| 42 | Downey | 111,263 |
| 43 | Laguna Woods | 16,056 |
| 44 | Temple | 4,709 |
| 45 | Artesia | 16,456 |
| 46 | Signal Hill | 11,430 |
| 47 | Whittier | 84,821 |
| 48 | West Covina | 105,808 |
| 49 | San Gabriel | 40,108 |
| 50 | Buena Park | 82,228 |
| 51 | Costa Mesa | 112,958 |
| 52 | Alhambra | 84,509 |
| 53 | Orange | 139,322 |
| 54 | Seal Beach | 24,268 |
| 55 | Lomita | 20,212 |
| 56 | Tustin | 80,815 |
| 57 | Chino Hills | 82,800 |
| 58 | San Juan Capistrano | 35,976 |
| 59 | Fountain Valley | 56,118 |
| 60 | La Mirada | 48,260 |
| 61 | Irvine | 272,694 |
| 62 | Lakewood | 79,676 |
| 63 | Lake Forest | 84,666 |
| 64 | Brea | 44,182 |
| 65 | Laguna Hills | 31,613 |
| 66 | Placentia | 52,049 |
| 67 | Diamond Bar | 55,870 |
| 68 | Walnut | 29,764 |
| 69 | Laguna Niguel | 65,048 |
| 70 | Torrance | 144,430 |
| 71 | Cypress | 49,137 |
| 72 | Laguna Beach | 22,991 |
| 73 | El Cerrito | 25,280 |
| 74 | Cerritos | 49,388 |
| 75 | El Segundo | 16,575 |
| 76 | San Clemente | 64,929 |
| 77 | La Habra Heights | 5,318 |
| 78 | Dana Point | 33,782 |
| 79 | Rancho Santa Margarita | 48,280 |
| 80 | Aliso Viejo | 50,385 |
| 81 | Mission Viejo | 95,638 |
| 82 | Rolling Hills Estates | 8,025 |
| 83 | La Palma | 15,657 |
| 84 | Villa Park | 5,883 |
| 85 | Yorba Linda | 68,103 |
| 86 | Rancho Palos Verdes | 41,635 |
| 87 | Newport Beach | 86,694 |
| 88 | Palos Verdes Estates | 13,359 |
| 89 | Redondo Beach | 66,663 |
| 90 | Manhattan Beach | 35,064 |
| 91 | Hermosa Beach | 19,147 |
