We used science and data to determine which places in the Granite State are the real pits.

Editor’s Note: This article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as infotainment. Don’t freak out we updated this article for 2020. This is our sixth time ranking the worst places to live in New Hampshire.

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New Hampshire is one of those states that you don't hear a lot about. Tucked away somewhere in New England, it's the wealthy, quiet kid in the corner with the plaid shirt and who has all the good grades.

At least that's the stereotype. That's not such a bad way to be viewed is it?

It's not an easy life for most of the year up there. But if you ask people who live there, they are fiercely protective of their state. They stick together up there, and would probably rather you stay out. Unless you're on vacation.

But is it all great in the Granite State? Of course not. Just like every other state, New Hampshire has its trouble spots. The purpose of this post is to use science and data to determine which cities in New Hampshire are the least desirable to live in.

Of course, many of the cities on this list would rank highly if they were in other states. But nonetheless, according to science, these cities are the worst places you could possibly live if you make New Hampshire your home.

After analyzing 27 of the state's most populous cities (over 5,000 people), we came up with this list as the 10 worst places to live in New Hampshire:

The 10 Worst Places To Live In New Hampshire For 2020 Rochester Newport Laconia Manchester Berlin Claremont Somersworth Pinardville Franklin Concord

What? Where are these places you wonder? And before you get all riled up and say we're picking on small town America, that's not the case.

We understand there's a lot of good in every place.

However, according to data (which doesn't measure things like beauty and 'friendly people'), there are far better options in the state for making a place home. And the worst place to live in New Hampshire? That would be Rochester.

Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and see how your city fared in 2020.

If you're looking for something more national, check out the worst cities in America or the worst states in America.

For more New Hampshire reading, check out:

Next 10 Cities

How we determined the worst places to live in New Hampshire for 2020

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 don't think it's a stretch to assume that people like the following things:

Good education

Lots of jobs

Low crime

Low poverty

Nice homes

High incomes

High population density (Lots of things to do)

Short work commutes

Health insurance

The data comes from the Census's most recent American Community Survey and from the FBI Uniform Crime Report.

We broke crime down into violent crime and property crime to give violent crime a larger weight -- if you did a simple calculation of all crimes per capita, property crimes are normally 7x more common and really bias that ranking.

Furthermore, only cities with at least 5,000 people were considered -- leaving 27 cities.

We then ranked each city from 1 to 27 for all the criteria with a #1 ranking being the worst for the particular criteria.

Next, we averaged the rankings into one "Worst Place To Live Score".

Finally, we ranked every city on the "Worst Place To Live Score" with the lowest score being the worst city in New Hampshire -- Rochester. Read on for a detailed look at the 10 worst cities in New Hampshire. You can download the data here.

This list is a scientific analysis based on real data and is completely unbiased.

Wrapping Up The Worst In New Hampshire

If you're looking at areas in New Hampshire with the worst economic situations, where there's higher than average crime, and not a lot to do, this is an accurate list.

And in the end, Rochester ranks as the worst city to live in New Hampshire for 2020.

If you're curious enough, here are the best cities to live in New Hampshire:

Durham (Pop. 11,101) Portsmouth (Pop. 21,778) Hanover (Pop. 8,591)

For more New Hampshire reading, check out:

Where Are The Worst Places To Live In New Hampshire? Rank City Population Unemployment Rate Home Value 1 Rochester 30,661 4.3% $167,400 2 Newport 5,019 4.4% $145,500 3 Laconia 16,342 5.2% $187,000 4 Manchester 111,657 5.1% $217,100 5 Berlin 10,382 8.2% $88,300 6 Claremont 13,016 3.3% $131,000 7 Somersworth 11,883 6.0% $179,800 8 Pinardville 5,390 3.7% $203,300 9 Franklin 8,586 4.2% $164,600 10 Concord 43,040 4.3% $218,600

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