East side of Detroit, Michigan. Charles Ommanney / Getty

The most miserable city in the US is Gary, Indiana.

The state with the most miserable cities is California, with 10. New Jersey is close behind, with nine, and Florida comes in third, with six.

These cities have things in common — few opportunities, devastation from natural disasters, high crime and addiction rates, and often many abandoned houses.

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Not the worst, just the most miserable.

We’ve identified the 50 most miserable cities in the US, using census data from 1,000 cities, taking into consideration population change (because if people are leaving it’s usually for a good reason), the percentage of people working, median household incomes, the percentage of people without healthcare, median commute times, and the number of people living in poverty. (See the data and how we weighted it here.)

Often, these cities have been devastated by natural disasters. They’ve had to deal with blight and with high crime rates. Economies have struggled after industry has collapsed. These cities also tend to have high rates of addiction.

The state with the most miserable cities was California, with 10 in the top 50. New Jersey was second, with nine, and Florida had six.



Here are the 50 most miserable cities in the US, based on US census data.

Editor’s Note: We have updated the story headline to make clear that the ranking was based on US census data, and included a link to the data in the story.

The 50 most miserable cities in America, based on census data

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