Newark New Jersey Ranked as the Dirtiest City in America

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Newark NJ, Rats, mold, pollution, and trash plague many U.S. cities big and small — but the problem is worse in some than in others. So, what are 2022’s Dirtiest Cities in America?

LawnStarter ranked nearly 90 of the biggest U.S. cities across four key categories, including pollution, living conditions, infrastructure, and consumer satisfaction.

See which cities are due for a spring cleaning below, followed by some highlights and lowlights from our report.

2022’s Dirtiest Cities in America

Rank City
1Newark, NJ
2Houston, TX
3Los Angeles, CA
4San Bernardino, CA
5Oklahoma City, OK
6San Antonio, TX
7Las Vegas, NV
8Phoenix, AZ
9Glendale, CA
10Chicago, IL

2022’s Cleanest Cities in America

Rank City
78Indianapolis, IN
79Hayward, CA
80Nashville, TN
81Pittsburgh, PA
82Greensboro, NC
83Charlotte, NC
84Columbus, OH
85Virginia Beach, VA
86Overland Park, KS
87Norfolk, VA

Highlights and Lowlights:

Newark: Dirty is in the Eye of the Beholder: New Jersey’s biggest city, Newark, lands atop the landfill as our Dirtiest City in America because of residents’ perceptions of Brick City.

Newark ranked No. 1 for both the share of residents who consider the city to be dirty or untidy and the share of residents dissatisfied with garbage disposal, according to a Numbeo survey. The city ranked No. 2 for the share of residents dissatisfied with the city’s parks and greenery.

Take away those survey results and the most flattering rankings for Newark were No. 68 for refuse and recycling collectors per 100,000 residents and No. 52 for tons of waste in landfills per 100,000 residents.

Biggest and Dirtiest Cities: More people means more rats, more roaches, and more dirty, smoggy air. Houston and Los Angeles landed in the No. 2 and No. 3 spots on our Dirtiest Cities list.

H-Town ranked No. 7 in the Living Conditions category (the home of the Rockets is also home to lots of roaches, finishing No. 3) and No. 9 in the Pollution category.

California’s largest city, meanwhile, ranked No. 5 in both the Living Conditions and Consumer Satisfaction categories. The City of Angels is also, it seems, the city of junkyards (tied at No. 1 with three other cities).

One-Hit Wonders: Some cities stand out for a single metric — but they’re no reasons to brag. For example, Indianapolis landed at No. 1 for refuse and recycling collectors per 100,000 residents, while Rochester, New York, topped the share of homes with mold in the past 12 months.

St. Petersburg, Florida, meanwhile, wins hands-down — or should that be slamming shoes down — when it comes to the share of homes with signs of cockroaches in the past 12 months.

Our full ranking and analysis can be found here: https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/dirtiest-cities-in-united-states/