We used science and data to find the places in the Old Line State that 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 Maryland.

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Maryland is a pretty fantastic state, overall. There are some of the most underrated beaches on the east coast here. The western side has some awesome mountains and scenery. And Baltimore, is well, Baltimore. At least the Ravens are always contenders, and the O's have proven they can contend in the AL East.

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

Of course, you'll most likely disagree if you see your town atop this list. But nonetheless, according to science, these cities are the worst places you could possibly live if you make Maryland your home. These places need a big hug right about now.

After analyzing 37 of the state's most populous cities (over 5,200 people), we came up with this list as the 10 worst places to live in Maryland:

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 Maryland? That would be Elkton.

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 Maryland reading, check out:

Next 10 Cities

How we determined the worst places to live in Maryland 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 37 cities.

We then ranked each city from 1 to 37 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 Maryland -- Elkton. Read on for a detailed look at the 10 worst cities in Maryland. 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 Maryland

If you're looking at areas in Maryland 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, Elkton ranks as the worst city to live in Maryland for 2020.

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

Rockville (Pop. 67,062) Bowie (Pop. 58,368) Mount Airy (Pop. 9,395)

For more Maryland reading, check out:

Where Are The Worst Places To Live In Maryland? Rank City Population Unemployment Rate Home Value 1 Elkton 15,675 7.6% $191,700 2 Cambridge 12,401 9.3% $158,400 3 Salisbury 32,536 7.6% $154,300 4 Bladensburg 9,397 6.4% $229,600 5 Hagerstown 40,186 9.4% $152,200 6 Mount Rainier 8,110 7.7% $336,200 7 Riverdale Park 7,219 5.6% $304,100 8 Baltimore 614,700 9.1% $156,400 9 Cumberland 19,845 10.7% $93,000 10 Greenbelt 23,203 6.0% $212,800

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