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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 Tacoma.
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 Tacoma 'burbs need a little tender loving care - the sore thumbs of the Tacoma area if you will. Realistically, you can't expect all the suburbs to live up to Tacoma proper, although Clyde Hill certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Tacoma are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 45 biggest suburbs of Tacoma to find out the worst places to live. And while you won't necessarily find them on the worst places to live in washington lists, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Tacoma in terms of quality of life.
Here are the 10 worst suburbs around Tacoma for 2021:
What's the worst suburb of Tacoma? Tukwila ranks as the worst suburb of Tacoma for 2021 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Tacoma that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don't blame the messenger.
Or, if you're thinking of moving to elsewhere in washington check out the best places in washington overall or the worst.
And remember, there are some good places to live around Tacoma 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 Washington reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In Washington
- Cheapest Places To Live In Washington
- Most Dangerous Cities In Washington
The 10 Worst Tacoma Suburbs To Live For 2021
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We'll get the ball rolling with Tukwila, the absolute worst place to live around Tacoma according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Tukwila beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 3rd worst in the Tacoma area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 15th 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 Tukwila.
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.
Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Tacoma 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 Tacoma.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 45 suburbs to evaluate around Tacoma.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 45 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 Tacoma." We're lookin' at you, Tukwila. 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 Tacoma where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2021
Well there you have it -- the worst of the 'burbs surrounding Tacoma with Tukwila casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Tacoma aren't all bad. Clyde Hill takes the cake as the best place to live around Tacoma.
- Clyde Hill
- Mercer Island
- Medina
For more Washington reading, check out:
- Best Places To Retire In Washington
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- Worst Places To Live In Washington
Detailed List Of The Worst Tacoma Suburbs
Rank | City | Population |
---|---|---|
1 | Tukwila | 20,196 |
2 | Rainier | 2,385 |
3 | Eatonville | 2,981 |
4 | Bremerton | 40,631 |
5 | Lakewood | 60,111 |
6 | Fife | 10,096 |
7 | Seatac | 29,019 |
8 | Algona | 3,211 |
9 | Port Orchard | 14,062 |
10 | Olympia | 51,534 |
11 | Enumclaw | 11,879 |
12 | Sumner | 10,053 |
13 | Federal Way | 96,526 |
14 | Tumwater | 22,974 |
15 | Auburn | 80,134 |
16 | Burien | 51,477 |
17 | Kent | 131,118 |
18 | Lacey | 49,248 |
19 | Des Moines | 31,734 |
20 | Orting | 8,012 |
21 | Pacific | 7,215 |
22 | Yelm | 8,985 |
23 | Puyallup | 40,991 |
24 | Milton | 7,715 |
25 | Buckley | 4,788 |
26 | Renton | 101,484 |
27 | Dupont | 9,435 |
28 | University Place | 33,326 |
29 | Normandy Park | 6,670 |
30 | Black Diamond | 4,476 |
31 | Bonney Lake | 20,707 |
32 | Steilacoom | 6,303 |
33 | Gig Harbor | 9,854 |
34 | Seattle | 724,305 |
35 | Fircrest | 6,795 |
36 | Issaquah | 37,965 |
37 | Edgewood | 11,264 |
38 | Covington | 20,825 |
39 | Bellevue | 144,403 |
40 | Newcastle | 11,750 |
41 | Maple Valley | 26,352 |
42 | Bainbridge Island | 24,486 |
43 | Medina | 3,267 |
44 | Mercer Island | 25,675 |
45 | Clyde Hill | 3,329 |