Ahh, Missouri known for its vast farmland the giant arch terrible weather and of
course its world famous barbecue missouri has a lot to offer five pro sports teams
the humber budweiser and the lake of the ozarks and while most of the show me state is great
just like every other state missouri has its least desirable spots the places you don't
want to live so in order to measure the worst places in missouri we got to use data and opinion
in terms of data it's going to be the places where crime is bad people are poor schools are
bad and where it's just straight ghetto in terms of opinion well i've been to a lot of
places in missouri and you missouri people though you've been sending me emails and commenting on
other videos telling me the bad places where you live and telling me where i should be
talking about so we're going to use those opinions as well well walt disney might be from missouri
there's certainly nothing magical about the places we're going to talk about and here here we go
we begin our tour of the worst places to live in missouri with a stop in poplar bluff located
down on route 60 in the ozark region of the state down here in butler county poplar bluff is home to
17 000 people and despite its beautiful location life here is tough about 33 percent of residents
that's one in three they're living in poverty and the unemployment rate's 10 percent but that's not
fully to blame here it's the wages people living here making a median income of just 30 000 it's
no wonder why home values are the second worst in the state here in poplar bluff and then there's
a crime it's a small area far from the big cities but crime in poplar bluff is the ninth highest in
the state most of it's property crime folks living here have a one in 15 chance of having their stuff
stolen or burned every year there's some arsonists here in poplar bluff that's 223 percent higher
than the national average what is going on here residents complain there's nothing fun to do here
there's rundown homes everywhere and meth junkies wandered the streets at all hours can you imagine
but if you're into art check out the flying f gallery and try not to give a flying f if your
car windows are smashed while you're in there we travel about three hours west to laclede county
to find number nine lebanon located in the scenic ozarks of south central missouri there's 15 000
people here if you drive through the city on i-44 you're gonna notice the highways lined with boats
that's because lebanon's become the aluminum boat building capital of the world good for you guys
pretty cool and pretty bad for the 20 of adults here who never graduated high school there's
plenty of manufacturing jobs to go around but very few people living here make more than 37k a year
a lot of people just aren't working and as a result 15 of people live below the poverty line
property crime is a growing problem in lebanon too if you live here for a year you have a 1 in
21 chance of being robbed and the city has one of the highest rates of car theft in the nation too
so don't forget to lock your doors just like in poplar bluff meth isn't hard to find here people
living here complain about junkies roaming the streets fights breaking out at the local walmart
and there's just not a lot to do unless you count trout fishing and happy hour at applebee's
at number eight berkeley it's the st louis suburb right next to ferguson i'm pretty sure
you've heard of it if you live in the st louis area there's 9 000 people who live here about
20 minutes from downtown like other cities on this list this place is struggling economically
jobs are hard finding berkeley the unemployment rate sits at 12 percent and if you're able to find
work the wages are low with a median income of just 33 grand as a result 18 percent of residents
are living below the poverty line education and housing are also concerns here and while berkeley
may look peaceful with plenty of parks we would not recommend exploring them alone or after dark
that's because the city averages just under two violent crimes per week
and more than one property crime each day there's only 9 000 people living here
in one year 101 cars were broken into so don't forget to lock up and hide anything valuable
there are some benefits to life in berkeley lambert's really close by people are just five
minutes away from getting the heck out of this town and throwing rolls across the restaurant at
number seven on our list aurora it's down in the southwestern part of the state in lawrence county
there's like 7 000 people here in the 19th century the area was booming thanks to the mining industry
but today this little sleepy town has a number of problems let's begin with the poor economy you'll
have trouble finding a good paying job in aurora 1 in 10 people doesn't have a job or won't get one
people make about 40k here and 12 percent of people are living below the poverty line
the school system is just about as lousy as a job market with some of the lowest funding levels in
the state and it shows one in five folks here never finished high school aurora has other
issues as well the crime rate's 120 percent above the u.s norm with residents standing at 1 in 21
chance of being the victim of a property crime every year they call aurora home in addition the
area struggles with housing and diversity so what are the perks of living in aurora well they have
both a walmart and a price cutter sweet and apparently they still have a drive-in theater in
town those are actually hard to find these days and very under-appreciated good for you aurora
down in pemscott county is number six on our list carruthersville it's along the mississippi across
the water from tennessee there's 5600 people here it's at an intersection of sorts i-155 and i-55
both run through town and it's easy to get to memphis and the ghetto parts of illinois from
here so that's one reason there's so much crime and drug use here carruthersville has a big safety
problem with the crime rate much higher than the national average in fact this place had the
highest burglary rate in missouri last year little carruthersville it also had the state's fifth
highest violent crime rate per capita with about one aggravated assault per week on average can you
believe that here in little carruthersville sadly the people here are struggling to make ends meet
the median income here is just barely above 31k and one in 10 people can't find a job or aren't
trying and one in four residents is on food stamps coincidentally one in four residents
here never finished high school either so as you can imagine folks here dealing with a terrible
school system it's so bad here even walmart closed up and left shop in 2017 if walmart
leaves your town must have some real problems i mean come on people but it needs a job when you
can just try your luck at the casino it's a sure bet right i'm sure a lot of people here shouldn't
be spending their money here at the carlosville casino but they do and it's sad and it's a shame
and number five the live entertainment capital of the world branson missouri
it's in taney county about a half hour south springfield in the heart of the ozark mountains
twelve thousand people live here but branson is just about a one hundred percent tourist town
which brings with it some positives and a whole lot of negatives what's not to love well people
living here say the traffic's terrible the cost of living is through the roof and the taxes are high
and the town shuts down when it's not peak season now the unemployment rate's under four percent
which is great but apparently it's hard to find a job that's not seasonal so for most of the year 17
of people are on welfare more than half the school kids are considered economically disadvantaged and
just 37 percent of high school kids are good at math come on branson that's why china's beating us
like other cities on this list crime and drugs are also a big problem in branson of course it's a
tourist town so crime's going to be high but as it stands branson has the highest property crime rate
in the state even though it's a tourist town and it's four times higher than the national average
so watch your wallet when you're at the show or in line at silver dollar city or you can join
the long list of people who were robbed here last year overall branson makes a great vacation just
not a place you want to call home at number four on our list sullivan it's right on i-44 southwest
of st louis down in franklin county it's home to about 7 000 people just like all other places on
this list this place is struggling economically the unemployment rate is not to blame here you
can find jobs here the problem is they're bad paying jobs people here make about 35k here
so one in five people's getting food stamps sullivan's crime rate is more than double the
u.s average where people have a 1 in 22 chance of being the victim of property crime on top of that
there's just not much to do in sullivan people living here complain that drugs are a growing
problem public transportation doesn't exist and there's no diversity and apparently people here
don't talk to one another at least that's what they tell one another online but if you live there
you do have great access to outdoor activities like merrimack state park so good for you
of course we knew springfield was going to be on this list you might be surprised it's not higher
on this list is this place is a wreck mister it's the third largest city in the state down here in
greene county in springfield one in five people are on welfare what is going on my god but that's
not even the real reason it's a terrible place of course springfield is the most dangerous place in
missouri even more dangerous than st louis if you can believe that when you measure both murders
and robberies combined per capita springfield's worse car thefts burglaries drug use you name it
springfield's got it springfield also had the highest rate of rape cases in the state too
averaging about one rape a day last year what the hell springfield residents have a 1 in 12 chance
of being the victim of a robbery that's pretty much everybody on every block every year here
and if that wasn't enough you guys told me there's no diversity or culture in springfield
women are treated poorly traffic's a nightmare homeless people are everywhere and the sidewalks
are littered with needles but bass pro shops is headquartered here so at least there's something
for you outdoorsy types down there so which city is actually worse than springfield might be a
surprise or not to learn its little charleston way down here in the far southeast corner of
the state and mississippi county there's only 6 000 people here charleston's a little teeny
country town where everybody knows each other and there's not too much going on aside from the
dogwood azalea festival each spring so how did it end up on this list well charleston is very poor
it has the highest unemployment rate in the state where 15 percent of people are out of work
it also has the second lowest household incomes where people make under 30 000 a
year for the whole house and that's why home prices are the sixth lowest in the state too
basically a bunch of people down there don't work haven't worked for a decade they get welfare and
use drugs crime is bad but not bad bad so at least there's that and all that trickles down
to the schools the kids here in charleston attend some of the lowest funded schools in the country
the national average per kid is about 14 000 a year in charleston it's half that and it shows
one in five kids drops out before their senior year here but they must be doing something right
because charleston high school has won 11 state boys basketball championships go blue jays and
the worst place to live in missouri is of course st louis it's like one of the worst
places to live in the country come on now crime here is through the roof but you knew that it's
one of the most violent cities in the country and it's getting worse and you knew that too get this
last year in st louis there were more than 5 700 rapes murders robberies and assaults in one year
there's a murder almost every other day here in st louis and if you manage to survive here your
stuff surely won't nearly 3 thousand people had their cars stolen in the city last year
that's just a fraction of the 18 500 property crimes committed last year too
there's huge parts of this city where people are broke and on welfare and they just wander around
all afternoon and evening looking for trouble it's known as the city that's segregated it's very
dirty and uninspiring in many areas now one of the problems has shrunk by 3.5 in the last five years
there's parts of st louis that are okay like downtown isn't so bad even at night and they
always seem to be fixing things up near downtown so that's cool at least they're trying but those
suburbs are bad if you live in st louis you know how bad it is if you're thinking about moving to
missouri it's okay to move to places really close to st louis just don't live in the pockets on the
north south or east sides of town because those are straight ghetto bs instead move to places
on the western fringes of downtown st louis and places like ledoux if you can afford them there's
also some really nice burbs in the kansas city metro area like lee's summit these are basically
places where it's safe there's a lot of jobs the schools are decent and there's things to do
is that too much to ask for a missouri a safe easy going nice life i mean come on it's a great
state they just need to do some soul searching and act like adults in a lot of these areas
hey guys so if anything i just talked about upset you or made you
sad or mad well then do something about it call your local leaders and demand change
chip in and help those in need make your community better because communities don't get better
without hard work and determination america is a great place it just needs some more love and pride
this is sage nyx manager this has been a corner house entertainment production
if you need help figuring out where to move email me i can do a phone consultation with
you and help you figure out what city and state's best for you and your family i do it all the time