TravelAPR 28, 2025

The List Of Dirtiest Cities In The US Was Released And Everyone Is Shocked About 1st Place

It's no secret that cities are one of the filthiest places in the world. Many residents, tourists, pests, cars, and other things result in dirt, trash, bacteria, and similar stuff that makes it an unclean place.

But have you ever wondered which of the cities is the dirtiest? Well, air quality company House Fresh wondered that about American cities and decided to do a study. And let's just say, when they revealed their results, quite a few people were rather shocked by their findings.

More info: House Fresh

Have you ever wondered which city is the dirtiest in the United States?

Image credits: Yianni Mathioudakis / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

This company did, and they decided to do a study, which revealed rather interesting results

The study lists the filthiest cities in the United States and the results shocked people, as they weren’t what they expected.

If you were to be asked about the dirtiest city in the US, or even the world, it’s likely your answer would be New York. After all, it’s one of the most populated and most visited cities in the world. Thus, so many people living and visiting the city results in a lot of trash.

Image credits: Paul Sableman / Flickr (not the actual photo)

There are quite a few challenges dealing with generated trash, and while the city tries various ways to solve it – which are either ineffective or lack commitment from the public – this leads to the city continuing to suffer from its trash problem.

Of course, not all of this is due to common people. Businesses and various corporations produce a lot of waste, too. From damaged equipment to business cards and their holders to haphazardly disposed waste – none of that helps NYC’s problem with filthiness.

While many people would expect New York, the city known for its filthiness, to be in first place, in reality, it was way lower than that

Image credits: Gang Hao / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

And still, it turns out that New York isn’t actually the dirtiest city in the world. Instead, Baltimore (which is located in Maryland) was deemed the dirtiest city in America. Apparently, it holds 47,295 sanitary-related complaints, which is the highest of all the cities in the country.

On the contrary, Milwaukee (which is located in Wisconsin) was dubbed as the cleanest city in America, as it has only 309 sanitary complaints among its 100,000 population.

It was only in 17th place, while Baltimore was dubbed the filthiest city

Image credits: Jas Min / Unsplash (not the actual photo)

Here’s what the list of the filthiest cities looked like and the number of uncleanliness complaints they have.

Baltimore, Maryland 47,295
Sacramento, California 34,186
Charlotte, North Carolina 31,112
Los Angeles, California 21,616
Memphis, Tennessee 17,408
Boston, Massachusetts 10,252
San Antonio, Texas 8,929
Kansas City 8,874
Buffalo, New York 8,509
Dallas, Texas 8,382
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 7,854
Nashville, Tennessee 7,703
Chicago, Illinois 7,376
Houston, Texas 6,275
Oakland, California 6,139
New Orleans, Louisiana 5,295
New York, New York 3,728
Miami, Florida 3,284
San Francisco, California 2,411
Austin, Texas 2,245
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2,144
Riverside, California 1,609
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 309

Image credits: Brett Sayles / Pexels (not the actual photo)

As you can see, the aforementioned New York – the city that quite many people think of as one of the dirtiest in the world – ranks in 17th place here.

At the same time, it should be noted that the city’s state holds the highest-complaining ZIP code – with Brooklyn having 7,664 reports. Analysts say that it is not surprising – since 2020, the place’s population has risen by 6.8%, plus various tourists constantly visiting it, resulting in challenges with cleanliness.

So, basically, while NYC might not be the dirtiest American city, it is far from the cleanest. It all depends on what kind of factors and data are taken into account when deciding such things. Either way, being dubbed the dirtiest place is kind of an achievement in itself, even if a rather negative one.