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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 Tempe.
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 Tempe 'burbs need a little tender loving care - the sore thumbs of the Tempe area if you will. Realistically, you can't expect all the suburbs to live up to Tempe proper, although Paradise Valley certainly tries.
Of course, not all suburbs of Tempe are created equally, which is precisely why we set out to find the best ones..
We examined the 21 biggest suburbs of Tempe to find out the worst places to live. And while you won't necessarily find them on the worst places to live in Arizona lists, these ten places are a little too far downwind of Tempe in terms of quality of life.
What's the worst suburb of Tempe? Guadalupe ranks as the worst suburb of Tempe for 2022 based on the most recent Census and FBI data.
Read on to see how we determined the places around Tempe that need a pick-me-up. And remember, don't blame the messenger.
Or, if you're thinking of moving to elsewhere in Arizona check out the best places in Arizona overall or the worst.
And remember, there are some good places to live around Tempe 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 Arizona reading, check out:
The 10 Worst Tempe Suburbs To Live For 2022
We'll get the ball rolling with Guadalupe, the absolute worst place to live around Tempe according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Guadalupe beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the worst in the Tempe area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 2nd 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 Guadalupe.
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 Apache Junction. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 22.9 miles to Tempe. Income levels here are the 2nd lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $46,708 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 Tempe suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Tolleson 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 Tempe suburbs.
But at least there are nice parks to bring the kids during the day.
/10
If you live in Glendale, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 4th lowest Tempe suburb when it comes to residents making money.
Not only that, but this is the 7th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Tempe. Remember, we looked at 21 cities for this study.
Glendale is about 17.9 miles to downtown.
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El Mirage has the distinction of being a Tempe suburb. Which means that's about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, El Mirage has the 3rd lowest home values in the metro Tempe area, where the median price is $177,200. To put that into perspective, in Paradise Valley, the median income is $212,773, which is the best in the area.
El Mirage has an unemployment rate of 5.43% which ranks 9th worst.
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Phoenix has 1,658,422 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 16.1680947349778%.
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Ah, Avondale. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Tempe.
It's the place with the 8th most out of work residents in the Tempe metro area (5.51%).
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Maricopa is a city about 24.2 miles from Tempe, but Tempe 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. Maricopa has the 8th most uninsured people, 9th worst incomes, and has the 11th highest unemployment rate (5.17%) in the entire Tempe metro area.
Homes only cost $217,400 for a reason. That's cheap for Tempe standards.
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If you absolutely have to live near Tempe, then Mesa might be a place for you to consider as it's only the 9th worst Tempe suburb.
About 5.13% of residents are out of work.
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Rounding out the ten worst Tempe suburbs to call home is Goodyear.
Located 26.7 miles outside the city, Goodyears is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 5th highest unemployment rate (6.27%), and poverty is far above the area average.
/10
Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Tempe 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 Tempe.
Additionally, we limited the analysis to places that have over 6,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 21 suburbs to evaluate around Tempe.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 21 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 Tempe." We're lookin' at you, Guadalupe. 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 Tempe where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2022
Well there you have it -- the worst of the 'burbs surrounding Tempe with Guadalupe casting itself ahead of the pack.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Tempe aren't all bad. Paradise Valley takes the cake as the best place to live around Tempe.
- Paradise Valley
- Fountain Hills
- Gilbert
For more Arizona reading, check out:
- Best Places To Retire In Arizona
- Richest Cities In Arizona
- Safest Places In Arizona
- Worst Places To Live In Arizona
Detailed List Of The Worst Tempe Suburbs
| Rank | City | Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Guadalupe | 6,572 |
| 2 | Apache Junction | 41,863 |
| 3 | Tolleson | 7,340 |
| 4 | Glendale | 250,290 |
| 5 | El Mirage | 35,702 |
| 6 | Phoenix | 1,658,422 |
| 7 | Avondale | 86,091 |
| 8 | Maricopa | 50,358 |
| 9 | Mesa | 508,918 |
| 10 | Goodyear | 83,519 |
| 11 | Goodyear | 83,519 |
| 12 | Goodyear | 83,519 |
| 13 | Goodyear | 83,519 |
| 14 | Santa Cruz | 65,011 |
| 15 | Queen Creek | 52,162 |
| 16 | Chandler | 257,076 |
| 17 | Litchfield Park | 6,228 |
| 18 | Scottsdale | 254,995 |
| 19 | Gilbert | 248,349 |
| 20 | Fountain Hills | 25,167 |
| 21 | Paradise Valley | 14,502 |
