City living comes with more entertainment, more job opportunities, and also more pollution, trash, and pests.
Which U.S. cities are the filthiest? To find out, LawnStarter ranked 2024's Dirtiest Cities in America.
This year, we expanded the scope of our study to encompass over 300 of the biggest U.S. cities based on 4 categories. More specifically, we considered air pollution, water quality, waste management, and resident dissatisfaction levels in each city, among 21 total metrics.
See where your city landed in our ranking below. To learn how we ranked the cities, see our methodology.
City Rankings
See how your city and others fared in our ranking:
1st = Dirtiest
No. 1: San Bernardino, California | Overall Score: 54.9
No. 2: Detroit | Overall Score: 52.89
No. 3: Reading, Pennsylvania | Overall Score: 51.85
No. 4: Newark, New Jersey | Overall Score: 50.66
No. 5: Ontario, California | Overall Score: 49.02
America's Dirtiest Cities aren't necessarily full of litterbugs — cities like San Bernardino, California (No. 1), and Detroit (No. 2), primarily deal with polluted air, high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and records of drinking water violations.
10 California cities in the Inland Empire, like San Bernardino, tie with the worst median air quality. The shipping industry is exploding in this region, with a freight corridor boasting over 4,000 warehouses and nearly 600,000 diesel-fueled trucks driving through the Inland Empire on a daily basis.
The Golden State is a major proponent of electric vehicles and passed a mandate implementing a gradual conversion from diesel to zero-emission big rigs and commercial trucks. California is a frontrunner in implementing green policies, like the Green Lawn Care law, which bans sales of newly manufactured gas-powered lawn care equipment.
Cities in Iowa and Virginia — like Des Moines (No. 295) and Roanoke (No. 297) — score among the least dirty cities in our ranking, near Lynchburg, Virginia, in last place. These cities enjoy less noxious air and near-roadway pollution, low excess fuel consumption, and higher resident satisfaction.
First, we determined the factors (metrics) that are most relevant to rank the Dirtiest Cities in America. We then assigned a weight to each factor based on its importance and grouped those factors into 4 categories: Pollution, Living Conditions, Infrastructure, and Resident Dissatisfaction.
For each of the 500 biggest U.S. cities, we then gathered data on each factor from AARP, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, Numbeo, Other LawnStarter Studies, Refuge Restrooms, Salvage-Parts.com, Texas A&M Transportation Institute, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Energy, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. We eliminated 197 cities lacking sufficient data in a single category, resulting in a final sample size of 303 cities.
Finally, we calculated scores (out of 100 points) for each city to determine its rank in each factor, each category, and overall. A city's Overall Score is the average of its scores across all factors and categories. The highest Overall Score ranked "Dirtiest" (No. 1) and the lowest "Least Dirty" (No. 303). Note: The "Least Dirty" among individual factors may not be No. 303 due to ties.
Today, about 40% of U.S. residents live in regions with unhealthy air quality, breathing in pollutants like particulate matter from wildfire smoke, oil refineries, and vehicles. Exposure to smog can lead to health consequences ranging from asthma to pregnancy loss to lung cancer.
Some states and the federal government are implementing green policies to counteract this dirty trend. This year, the Environmental Protection Agency updated its air quality standards for the first time in 12 years and is taking additional steps to restrict emissions from power plants.
With such varied factors contributing to pollution, there isn't one solution for cleaning up America's dirtiest cities. However, there are small steps that can be taken by individuals looking to make their home and neighborhood cleaner and greener.
Explore our guides below.
Oh, and prepare to celebrate National Upcycling Day next year. Instead of trashing that old boot or bucket, turn it into a flower container. Dirty cities can clean up a bit by repurposing items that would otherwise wind up in a trash heap waiting to be picked up with the garbage.
This story was produced by LawnStarter and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.
