Detroit, Michigan is the worst city in the US to live in due to its urban decay, violent crime rates and dwindling population, according to a new study.

It's not alone in being a dreadful place to reside, however: Birmingham, Alabama and Flint, Michigan take the next two spots.

And there are 47 more cities behind them, ranging from the dusty, deprived city of Merced, California, to tourist favorites Philadelphia and Miami Beach, 24/7 Wall Street reported.

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Run down: Automation and foreign manufacturing in the US auto industry has seen Detroit's standard of living falling; it's now the worst US city to live in, according to a new study

To make the list, the site compiled data on the 551 cities that had populations of more than 65,000 in 2015.

It then rated them on a slew of subjects in nine major categories: crime, economy, demography, education, environment, health, housing, infrastructure, and leisure.

Each of those was then split into sub-sections, so 'crime' differentiates between violent and property crime, while 'health' includes the death rate from illnesses as well as how often people are readmitted to hospital.

Other factors included property prices, poverty and unemployment rates, availability of public transportation and the quality of air.

All data came from 2015 figures.

The statistics were given points and weighted, and final scores handed out to each of the cities to see which were the best and worst on offer.

Below are the top ten worst cities, according to the analysis; the full list can be found at the bottom of the page.

1. Detroit, Michigan

Abandoned: As the population of Detroit has fled, the city has been left to decay; its violent crime rate is the second highest in the country and the second-lowest property values

Population 677,124

Median home value $42,600

Poverty rate 39.8 per cent

Population with a bachelor's degree or above 14.2 per cent

Seeing downcast Detroit at the top of this list will be of little surprise to many, given its failing fortunes in recent times.

As the US auto industry has come to rely increasingly on automation and foreign manufacturing, employment in the city has dropped off in recent decades - with the population taking a similarly precipitous tumble.

At 677,124, the population is now just a third of what it was in 1950, when it topped out at 1.8 million people, and continued to drop at a rate of 19 per cent over the past decade.

Urban decay is rife in the city, which is clawing its way back from bankruptcy, and its violent crime rate is the second highest in the country at 1,760 crimes per 100,000 residents.

That's left property values at the lowest outside of its neighbor, Flint, with the average occupied Detroit home being worth just $42,600.

And on average Detroit households earn just $25,980 a year - that's under half the national average of $55,755.

2. Birmingham, Alabama

Poor: A third of Birmingham's residents live in poverty, and its population continues to drop. This fire started when two men burned a homeless man's possessions, cops said in 2006

Population 214,911

Median home value $93,000

Poverty rate 29.2 per cent

Population with a bachelor's degree or above 25.3 per cent

Like Detroit, Birmingham's failing economy has driven away residents while raising poverty levels.

In the past decade, the city has shed 3.3 per cent of its population, while employment has fallen by 0.9 per cent in the past ten years.

Around a third of the city's population is now impoverished, at 29.2 per cent - which is around double the national poverty rate of 14.7 per cent.

And those that are making money are bringing home just $32,378 per household per year.

Those woes extend beyond Birmingham and across the rest of the state, according to AL.com, which reported in 2016 that Alabama had the fourth highest poverty level in the US.

3. Flint, Michigan

Decay: Flint has the lowest property values in the US, not helped by lead-contaminated water, a 40.8% poverty rate and an income of just $25,342 compared with the $55,755 US average

Population 98,297

Median home value $25,900

Poverty rate 40.8 per cent

Population with a bachelor's degree or above 11.8 per cent

Motor City's neighbor has also suffered due to changes in the auto industry and the decline of American manufacturing, with 30,000 jobs now gone from Buick's former auto plant in the city.

Infamously the city has also suffered from drinking water that had not been properly treated for lead contaminants from old pipes.

The population has declined rapidly - at a rate of 12.2 per cent in the last ten years.

It also had the highest poverty rate in the nation of any city in the 2015 data, at 40.8 per cent, with the average income being $25,342 a year.

The figures state above come from 2015 statistics; the most recent census bureau statistics suggest that things have become worse in the year since.

As of June 2016, the percentage of people living below the poverty line had increased to 41.2 per cent.

And the the average household income had dropped to $24,862.

4. St Louis, Missouri

Poverty: A quarter of St Louis' population lives in poverty, thanks to industrial decline that has left factories like this one utterly abandoned. Its population has halved since the 1950s

Population 315,685

Median home value $130,800

Poverty rate 24.9 per cent

Population with a bachelor's degree or above 34.7 per cent

St Louis' poverty rate is more than ten per cent higher than the national average, the result of decades of industrial decline.

That has coincided with increased segregation as affluent whites have fled the city for the suburbs, and an overall population drop of more than 50 per cent since the 1950s.

In the last ten years, the population of St Louis has fallen by 5.4 per cent - whereas the population of the US overall has increased by double that.

That has in turn led to urban decay and the country's highest crime rate for a city, with 1,817 violent crimes reported per 100,000 residents.

That's more than five times the national crime rate.

5. Memphis, Tennessee

Crime: Memphis has the most crime of any major city in the US (pictured: guns and drugs taken from 23 people accused of being involved in a drug organization in 2014)

Population 655,760

Median home value $94,400

Poverty rate 26.2 per cent

Population with a bachelor's degree or above 24.9 per cent

While St Louis has the highest crime rate for any city in the US, Memphis has the highest for any major city.

It has 1,740 violent crimes for every 100,000 residents, putting it just a hair's breadth under St Louis.

And its property crime rate is 5,631 for every 100,000 residents - more than double the rate for the nation as a whole.

More than a quarter of the city's population is impoverished, and the average household income is just $55,775.

6. Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Violence: Milwaukee has the most violent crimes of any city in Wisconsin, and also the state's highest rate of poverty (pictured: a building burned out in riots caused by a police shooting)

Population 600,154

Median home value $114,000

Poverty rate 26.8 per cent

Population with a bachelor's degree or above 23.9 per cent

Milwaukee has the dubious honor of leading Wisconsin's other cities for both violent crime and poverty.

In 2015 there were 1,596 violent crimes for every 100,000 people in the city - that's more than triple the next closest Wisconsin city.

That figure also makes it the sixth most violent city in America.

The city is having some relief in that area, however: It was selected in 2016 to receive federal funding for the purposes of reducing violence.

Its poverty rate of 26.8 per cent is the largest in the state, and it has the lowest median household income for Wisconsin, at $37,495.

7. Albany, Georgia

Population 71,109

Median home value $92,600

Poverty rate 32 per cent

Population with a bachelor's degree or above 19 per cent

Contradicting the US's ever-increasing population, Albany's population has dropped by four per cent over the past decade.

The total employment in the city has also dropped, falling by 1.7 per cent between 2013 and 2015, while the US workforce has increased by four per cent.

That's left it with a 7.9 per cent unemployment rate - 2.9 per cent above the national average.

In turn, more than a third of the city's residents now live in poverty.

8. Hartford, Connecticut

Difficult times: People living in Hartford have to deal with one of the highest tax rates in the country, with goods and services costing 17 cents more on the dollar (pictured: a local family)

Population 124,014

Median home value $159,200

Poverty rate 28.3 per cent

Population with a bachelor's degree or above 16.9 per cent

At 10.4 per cent, Hartford has the seventh highest unemployment rate in the US - meaning it's tied with Flint, Michigan and Compton, California.

But to compound problems for the un- and underemployed, the city has one of the highest tax rates in the country.

Goods and services cost 17 cents more per dollar than the American average.

That's led to a drop in population as people leave the city for new opportunities in cities where there are more jobs and lower living expenses - the city's poulation has dropped by 0.7 per cent in the past five years.

Those changes, as elsewhere, have gone hand-in-hand with increasing crime rates (1,141 violent crimes per 100,000 residents) and poverty (at 28.3 per cent, Hartford has double the national poverty level).

9. Merced, California

Population 82,440

Median home value $204,400

Poverty rate 35.1 per cent

Population with a bachelor's degree or above 19.5 per cent

Merced has a rather unusual feature adding to its undesirability: It's liable to suffer a major earthquake, as it's just 75 miles out of San Jose, not far off the San Andreas faultline.

But it has other problems, too, like being the tenth worst city in the US in terms of poverty, with a rate that's way above the national average.

It also has an annual unemployment rate of 10.7 per cent, making it one of the worst offenders in the country, as well as a below-average number of libraries, museums, bars and restaurants.

10. Wilmington, Delaware

Population 71,957

Median home value $160,300

Poverty rate 26 per cent

Population with a bachelor's degree or above 25.4 per cent

Despite having more than a quarter of its population living in poverty and an unemployment rate of 6.9 per cent, Wilmington has a very high cost of living.

Groceries are priced at ten per cent over the national average, while utilities cost 37 per cent more and housing is 26 per cent higher in price.

That also means the $41,035 average salary is even lower than it looks.

As is seen in other cities, deprivation is accompanied by crime, and Wilmington has the fifth-highest level of violent crime in the city, with 1,708 violent crimes per 100,000 residents.