Indiana! The state known for endless cornfields its love for basketball and the greatest spectacle
and motor racing people in the hoosier state sure know how to have a good time especially at walmart
they're pretty nice for the most part and this state just kind of flies under the radar or it's
a flyover state whatever you want to call it while it can be really pretty in the summer it's not all
sunshine and rainbows here there's a lot of places in the state where you definitely want to stay
away from those are the places we're going to talk about today to measure the bad places in the state
you got to use data right you know where there's high crime and poverty and where places are just
run down and ghetto plus you got to talk to people in indiana like me i lived there for five years
so i know what i'm talking about but i also talk to other indiana people to get their opinions so
we're going to get a well-rounded opinion on this so while indiana brought larry bird to the world
not every place in this state is a slam dunk let's get started shall we
we're going to begin our tour of the worst places live in indiana with a stop in lawrence
located on the northeast side of indianapolis this suburb is home to about 50 000 people and
it's actually growing at twice the rate of the rest of indiana if you can believe that
if you absolutely have to live near the capital city this might seem like the place to settle down
but it's not great i mean there's a reason life pd was here every friday night until they
canceled the show which sucks because it was amazing watching lawrence people run around
and get chased by the cops about 15 percent of residents here are living below the poverty line
and six percent can't find jobs and the median income is just about 57 000 on top of that drugs
are a growing problem with overdose deaths climbing each year and a crime rate that's
much higher than the national average if you live in lawrence for a year you have a one in 46 chance
of being the victim of a property crime there were 187 cars stolen here last year even if you
lock your doors you can still be a victim people here say they've even had their tires stolen
if you're focused on your health steer clear of lawrence people say there's a lack of sidewalks
and a lack of bike lanes and there's no healthy restaurants if you're in a fast food and high-end
dining like olive garden this is your place but on the plus side the schools are actually pretty
decent with a 93 graduation rate hey that's cool good job there lawrence and number nine is linton
now unless you live in greene county you might not even know about linton it's sort of south of terre
haute there's only 5 000 people here people are welcomed into the city by giant signs that say
you'll like linton but i think you won't like linton linton suffers from a weak economy and
a struggling school system the median income is a measly 34 grand making it hard to make ends meet
and leaving about 22 percent of the residents scrape and buy on food stamps and the problems
trickle back down to the school system too without much of a tax base schools in the area suffer
and they receive poor ratings only 64 percent of students can read at the correct level and just 44
percent of students are proficient in math overall linton is a slow paced coal mining city that has a
lot of hunting and fishing nearby so that's good people here love supporting their high school
football team go miners but beyond that there just really isn't much going on here in linton
at number eight is clarksville in clark county just across the river from louisville there's 22
000 people in this town clarksville is the oldest american town in the former northwest territory
their town slogan is it begins here and if they're talking about the start of a police investigation
will agree clarksville has the highest total crime rate in the state can you believe that
little clarksville people living here have a 1 in 17 chance of having their stuff stolen or damaged
lock those doors people this town also has the seventh highest violent crime rate in the state
what is going on in clarksville but the schools here are actually pretty decent and there's a
lot of job opportunities especially because you're just a short commute from louisville
just stay away from the west side of louisville that's bad news clarksville does have some claims
to fame this town has one of the largest clocks in the world and it's home to some cool old
fossils and it's where the restaurant chained texas roadhouse first started hey so enjoy that
cactus blossom with pry guys at number seven on our list is connorsville located way out in the
boonies toward the ohio state line kind of way out in fayette county connersville's population has
been declining since the 60s and today there's only 13 000 people left it was once a bustling
town known as little detroit today it's still kind of like little detroit but for the wrong reasons
nearly 27 of connersville residents are scraping by below the poverty line and one in 14 people
here are jobless income levels and home prices are both in the bottom five in the state and nearly a
quarter of adults never finished high school as a result conorsville's seen a sharp rise in suicides
and substance abuse the county's drug overdose rate is five times higher than the national
average and people complain about used needles on the sidewalk and people living out of their cars
the school's here trying though they give free breakfast out to the elementary school kids and
the boys high school basketball program is a bright spot for the community so that's cool
spartanbull was recently voted as the best high school gym in the state
the folks living here sure pack it in for every home game to cheer on their team
but aside from the high school basketball there's just not much else to do here in connersville
people living out here are most likely bored and they probably wouldn't have much disposable
income to do much with even if there was some form of entertainment it seems fitting that the
guy who created sudoku was from connersville because that is a very boring thing to do
hammond ranks is the sixth worst place to live in indiana these days it's way up on
the illinois border south of east chicago it's basically a chicago suburb you can get there in
about 45 minutes but don't be fooled by the prime location hammond is not a place you want to live
hammond suffers from a weak economy in high crime about 22 percent of it 77 000 residents live below
the poverty line and about 8 percent can't find jobs or won't work the crime rate stands at about
70 percent above the national average too people living here have about a one in 27 chance of
being the victim of a property crime every year so keep a good grip on those winnings from the
horseshoe hammond casino the city had the 8th highest murder rate in indiana too so keep a
good grip on your life hammond residents complain the city's loud the sidewalks are poorly lit at
night and they don't feel safe walking alone the city also struggles with a bad educational system
the area only gets a score 5 out of 10 from great schools but if you don't have kids and safety
isn't a concern hammond has a vibrant nightlife has a diverse community and a beautiful lakefront
park and bird sanctuary i guess that's cool we're not going too far out for our next worst place to
live in indiana which is lake station it's along i-94 way up near michigan kind of close to gary
back in the day lake station changed its name to east gary in an attempt to lure executives from
nearby steel plants in gary but if you know gary you'll understand why they changed the name back
lake station has enough of its own problems the city is struggling folks nearly 10 percent of its
12 000 residents are jobless and as a result about one in four people is on food stamps
and they don't seem to want to stop receiving them either i mean free money and food right
the crime rate's much higher than national average and folks here have about a 1 in 37 chance of
having their stuff stolen or burned every year they call lake station home and the schools well
they're terrible lake station community schools ranked in the bottom half of all districts in
the state and the kids are falling well below the state average in both reading and math 78 percent
of students here are economically disadvantaged the student-to-teacher ratio is higher than the
state average and the funding just isn't there if you pass through lake station on i-94 my
recommendation is to keep driving we're going to stay in northern indiana for another one in fact
i don't think we're really going to get out of northern indiana much for the rest of this video
south bend is a real dump most people know south bend is home to the university of notre dame but
in terms of places to live south bend is among the worst not even the luck of the irish can help this
struggling economy of the 100 000 people living here one in four live in poverty and a bunch of
people don't have jobs and that's despite the fact there's a ton of manufacturing jobs in the area
they just can't find people up here who want to work and that's why the average household
here brings in only 40 grand a year get to work people but at least the houses are cheap right
i mean south bend has the second worst home values in the state where you can get one for yourself
for only 127 grand and then there's the safety which is a massive concern here south bend's crime
rate is more than 120 percent above the national average and unlike some of the other cities on
this list it's not just stolen cars and cell phones people living in south bend have a one in
75 chance of being the victim of a violent crime that's 263 percent higher than national average
what is happening at south bend but if you still want to move here you better plan on a private
education for your kids the public schools here are terrible people complain the city's falling
apart there's homeless people camped all over the place there's a growing drug problem on
top of that the drivers here are terrible and 80 percent of the year the weather is gray and cloudy
but if you decide to move downtown you get free wi-fi so at least there's something
now if you live in the greater india area you likely know about anderson it's way up outside
of the indianapolis sprawl in the north end past noblesville way out in madison county there's 54
000 people here and i think just about everyone in anderson would agree that it's a shell of what it
once was gm used to be the big employer here but when they left in the early 90s the economy dried
up and never recovered today nearly a quarter of residents are on welfare 1 in 12 can't find jobs
and those who can aren't earning much just about 37 grand a year home values are really low and
so are the spirits among the people living here at least that's what they say online
residents complain that there's nothing to do here except for going to the casino and there's nowhere
nice to shop now that the mall is closed there's empty buildings and dilapidated houses everywhere
you look and the streets are so bad they just might swallow your whole car then there's drugs
and crime drug use is swept over this town causing frequent overdoses especially among young people
and safety is a huge concern here too anderson averaged more than one rape case per week last
year giving this city the highest rate of rape cases in the whole state it also has
the third highest burglary rate in indiana too so before you enjoy a day hike at mound state park
better triple check to make sure you locked your doors at number two
east chicago we talked about this place earlier there's 28 000 people here and going down fast of
course when all the steel jobs left in the 70s and 80s that devastated east chicago the population
is plunged by more than 30 000 people in 50 years and today the east chicago economy is in the pits
one-third of the population's on food stamps and one in 10 won't work on top of that 1 in 3 adults
living here never finished high school come on people school's cool everyone knows a stereotype
about chicago being dangerous but the crime rate in east chicago is actually higher that's
the third highest violent crime rate in the whole state that includes the second highest murder rate
in addition to violent crime people living here have a 1 in 26 chance of being the victim of a
property crime if you live in east chicago you or somebody on your block probably had their home
or car broken into last year the police here sure are busy i'll tell you that if that wasn't enough
in 2009 parts of east chicago were discovered to have toxic lead and arsenic contamination
it's a problem they're still trying to clean up today but if you have to move to east chicago
at least the public schools are well funded they're not safe but your kids
might get some attention if the teacher can keep the class settled down enough to actually
teach and the worst place to live in indiana is of course gary gary's the toilet bowl of indiana you
know i'm not lying the 76 000 people here can't deny it either gary has the worst crime rate in
the state people here have a 1 in 183 chance of being raped killed or attacked the city averages
more than one murder a week even the welcome to gary road signs have bullet holes in them and it's
not just the violent crime gary has the second highest burglary rate in state of indiana too
but thankfully there's not much to steal here because nobody can afford nice things
the unemployment rate's the highest in the state of course 13 percent of people are out of work
one in three people here gets food stamps every month and the average annual household income
is the lowest in indiana at about 30 000 a year that's what folks make and as you can
imagine home values in gary are going to be really cheap second lowest 66 000 gets you a home here
it's also estimated that about one of every three homes in gary are unoccupied or abandoned as you
can see here there's entire neighborhoods that have been demolished and turned back to nature
you can actually get a home in gary for a dollar but you'd have to live here for a year to get that
deal i'm guessing you don't want to live in gary for a day much less a year on the bright
side there's some nice places in gary the area up along lake michigan has some nice homes you could
live there i guess but i have no idea where you'd shop or hang out without being utterly depressed
so there you have it the worst cities to live in indiana these are all places in the state where
crime is super high people are broke schools suck and there's just simply nothing to do
now if you're looking for some of the best places to live in the hoosier state they're
going to be places like carmel and westfield and zionsville and noblesville kind of all
in the northern indianapolis suburb area you know them all or even munster and dyer
kind of south of east chicago right on the illinois state line all these places are safe
and quaint and bursting at the seams with rich snobby people farmers markets and great schools
so move to one of those places if you want a nice place to live because the places we just
talked about are surely not places you want to plant roots in indiana i'll tell you that
folks think i'm crazy what do i grow drive around here and you'll see corn popping up in rows
just look around me all you see is beans but at least all summer this whole place will be so green
and we can shop walmart together go to church together nothing's gonna stop us now
we can watch the colds together pick mushrooms together nothing's gonna stop us nothing's gonna
stop us now no whoa 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