Are you thinking about moving to rural Tennessee? Did you watch our best rural towns in the
volunteer state video? if you did today we're looking at the other side of the tennessee coin
the worst rural towns like i said in previous videos whenever i post a best world towns video
i get a flood of emails that i'll start with what about this town and then the person goes
on to list some other random rural town that in most cases looks like a miserable place to live
i thought i should start listing rural towns that you should probably avoid are these towns the
absolute worst places to live on the earth no they just have some bad stats a bad location things
like that okay before we get started one thing i have to say when you go to any small town in the
united states ninety percent of the people in that town are going to be some of the greatest people
you ever meet the really nice friendly folks they just always have that 10 percent that are really
screwing up the stats and making a nice place to live a bad place to live get it got it good let's
take a look number 10 ridgely tennessee ridgely tennessee sits almost two hours north of memphis
and about a mile and a half east of the shores of the mississippi river that's from downtown
ridgely like their main street which this also means it's not too far from missouri or missouri
depending on what part of missouri you come from ridgely doesn't look like a terrible place it does
look like it's seen better days their downtown which is main street looks like it could use some
serious renovations and judging from this street view picture from 2019 they might be doing some
probably not enough originally has a population of 1980 people that was in 2020 i think they've
lost a couple since then but they got a crime rate that's 59 above the national average now this is
strange their crime rate isn't astronomical like other cities we've seen this is a small rural
town so 59 is kind of high especially they got almost 2000 people so that's legit but normally
when you see a violent crime rate that is as high as theirs 221 percent above the national average
it normally stems from domestic violence issues this is a southern state and the southern states
kind of have a problem with it nine of the 15 with the highest domestic violence rate
are southern states with tennessee being number 14. now i'm not sure if that's ridgeley's problem
i tried to look it up i couldn't find anything on it i just that's usually an indicator i don't
know the poverty level in ridgely is 109 above the national average number 9 bethel springs
tennessee bethel spring sits about 35 minutes south of jackson tennessee which there's a great
kroger fight on there some women got in a fight in a kroger in jackson tennessee and it is hysterical
and one of the ladies was doing my favorite thing that kind of indicates that they don't know how to
fight they put their hand across their chest like i don't know a butler does when he has a white
hand towel across his arm and then they hold their other hand down around their hip and they act like
that is leaving your face exposed i've boxed in the army and in college i've been in a few fists
of cuffs in my life when i see someone do that i know they're getting ready to get the front teeth
loosened up but if you want to see a good fight in a grocery store watch that one anyway bethel
springs is far enough away from jackson where they don't have a kroger they have to worry about
fighting in bethel springs is a farming town of about 950 people and they got a crime rate that's
104 percent above the national average bethel springs has a poverty rate that sits about 109
above the national average the good news is if you want to buy a house here they've got something for
every budget they have lots for as low as 12 000 dollars they have homes you probably don't want
for about sixty thousand dollars ones that look like they're decent for about a hundred fifty
thousand dollars and they go all the way up into the four hundred and five hundred thousand dollars
for really nice homes that probably come with like two acres just stay out of the kroger in jackson
number eight sandburg tennessee sandburg tennessee is located on the eastern shore of real foot lake
so prior to december 10th 2021 they didn't have the best stat and i kind of feel bad about putting
them on the list because this town was destroyed by a tornado they are rebuilding but the reason
i'm going to leave them on the list is because i want to put some links for their gofundme on
this video so they'll be down below there's a few you could just type in sandberg tennessee gofundme
a lot of the families there have gofundmes up and they could use some help but samberg did
have a population of 200 and their crime rate was 43 percent higher than the national average
the poverty level in sandberg is about 52 above the national average which isn't good i'm just
guessing that means some of these people may not have homeowners insurance or whatever or if they
do it's probably not the best but if you do want to buy a home here they do have some pretty cheap
lots going they used to have homes on them sadly and now they don't but there's one lot currently
going for 19 000. it's good size then they have a home that was untouched it's going for 65 000
and then they have 65 acres near town that is going for about 240 000 so if you want to get
in on a rebuilding of a small lake town sandberg may be it for you it just didn't have the best
stats before the tornado number seven atwood tennessee while i was trying to record this i
almost said roman atwood like six different times he's an old school youtuber that's huge he's not
into it as much as he used to be but i used to watch him all the time but atwood tennessee has
a population of 921 residents roman atwood is not one of them atwood sits about two hours west of
nashville tennessee and they got a crime rate that sits about 90 percent above the national average
that's not good especially for such a small town this is a cute little rural farming town that
doesn't look bad they just don't have the greatest stats like their poverty rate their poverty rate
is 60 higher than the national average if you want to buy a home in atwood you're probably
looking around 200 000 as you're starting money that'll get you something decent and they have a
lot of newer construction that start off around three hundred thousand if you want a lot and
build something on it they've got quite a few of them starting at around an acre going up to
about three acres for thirty thousand dollars just depending on which one you choose i guess
number six trenton tennessee trenton tennessee probably shouldn't be on this list because it's
a little big but it's definitely a rural town trenton has a population of just about 4 000
residents they've got a mcdonald's a subway a dollar general and a family dollar nothing says
southern town like two sworn enemies battling it out across main street for the american dollar
family dollar is in the davy crockett mall which is a little roadside mall the significance here
is davy crockett he is a big hero in tennessee he was born in tennessee and died at the alamo
and everyone knows that story a lot of people confuse him with daniel boone that
aren't from the south or tennessee especially that's davey crockett not to be confused with
daniel boone a lot of people do that if you're not from tennessee or that part of the country
you think daniel boone is davy crockett or vice versa daniel boone started in pennsylvania and
was about 50 years before davy crockett they kind of did the same thing they were frontiersmen
explorers davy crockett went on to be like a congressman and stuff like that and went down to
the alamo and got killed there but so you'll run into a lot of things in tennessee that are named
davy crockett trenton has a crime rate that's 93 percent above the national average and their
poverty level is 143 higher than the national average if you want to buy a home here they got
something for every budget they have small homes that yeah they look livable you might need to do
a little bit of work but they start off around thirty thousand if you want something decent
uh you're probably going to be spending around 175 000 all the way up to four hundred thousand
and for four hundred thousand you get something that's like really nice number five baileyton
tennessee bailey10 sits about an hour northeast of knoxville it was originally called laurel gap this
area was first settled in 1776 and named after two brothers who lived in the area claudius and thomas
p balington the town was incorporated in 1915 so it's been around a while and it's really not
gaining population they only have 427 residents and they do have a bailington celebration every
year they got it coming up this september i believe now when it comes to the crime
rate this one isn't terrible their crime rate is actually six percent above the national average
but their violent crime rate is 127 percent above the national average the poverty level in bailiton
is 43 percent higher than the national average if you want to buy a house here it's kind of weird
there's nothing in town but in the surrounding area nice homes that are rural with a couple
acres start off around 130 000 but they can get all the way up to like a million dollars for like
300 acres if you like to fish and let's say hike in the woods this is a great place for it you
can't go what seems like a mile without running into a creek in any direction or several number
four pleasant hill tennessee pleasant hill is about an hour west of knoxville with a little over
500 residents that are only one generation or so past moonshining being a legitimate
profession don't confuse this one with pleasant hill california just kidding it's impossible to
confuse these two in pleasant hill tennessee most homes go for under two hundred thousand
in pleasant hills california a one-bedroom condo will run you 750 000. it's up there in
the bay area it's incredibly expensive while i was researching this almost every state has a pleasant
hills pleasant hill has a crime rate that's 69 percent above the national average and their
poverty level sits about 98 above this town was first settled in 1819 then in 1894 a teacher from
the american missionary association established the pleasant hills academy today the main building
of that academy is known as pioneer hall and it's still standing and stay to the end and you'll get
to hear about a town that was named after a fake indian chief he wasn't fake he was from a novel
number three toontown tennessee actually it's just toon tennessee but it is a town tune sits a little
over an hour east of memphis tennessee that hour marks just far enough away not to get any of that
memphis stink on you and they have a population of about 366 residents now here's something nice
about the place their total crime rate is ten percent lower than the national average bravo
but like all toons they're violent you ever seen a bugs bunny cartoon how about tom and jerry they
are very violent tunes this town's violent crime rate is 369 percent above the national average
outstanding toontown now the cool thing is their property crime is actually 85 percent lower than
the national average and that helps them with their crime rate their poverty rate is 86
higher than the national average when it comes to real estate a decent place is going to start
off around 160 175 000 and work their way up to about 300 000 and those lots usually come with
an acre or two at least now they don't have a lot for sale right now but in recent months
they've sold some and that's about what it sits at they did sell a bunch of lots though in recent
months so i get the feeling someone's getting ready to build something there this again is
another great place if you like the outdoors and you like to fish tons of creeks around
here and the hatchy river isn't too far away either that's great for fishing catfish and gar
normally and a lot of people like to canoe this river this town started off in 1856 now people
lived in the area before that but the town kind of took off in 1856 and it was developed around a
railroad stop this is kind of interesting tune is home to the kilgore flare company the company has
operated near tune since the early 1920s they manufacture like those air deployed decoy
flares that are used by the us military aircraft you have a really big complex for such a small
little town out in the middle of nowhere number two linden tennessee linden is about an hour and
a half southwest of nashville this is the type of place your wife makes you move to when she finds
out you're a regular at hooters you obviously can't be trusted and you gotta move someplace
where she can keep her eye on you lyndon is a small town of 881 residents not at hooters
anywhere but they do have plenty of crime their crime rate is 114 percent above the national
average now linden covers a big area a big rural area but the town itself sits on the buffalo
river which is a pretty good river for fishing and kayaking whatever you want to do and then
you want to go a little bigger on the outskirts of town you have the tennessee river about 15
minutes away from downtown linden has more than its fair share of poverty the poverty level linden
169 above the national average that's not great what really sucks about this place you don't
even get a break on the real estate it's kind of expensive a shack here will cost at least 150 000
but a majority of the homes that are worth living in and you can move right in and not have to worry
about much start off around 250 000 and work their way up all right before we get to number one don't
forget we have another channel called on this day there's a link down below alright on to number one
and number one niota tennessee niota sits about the midway point between knoxville
and chattanooga right near athens this town was originally called mouse creek but it was renamed
in 1897 to avoid confusion with a railroad stop in jefferson county that was called mossy creek
and they got the name niota from some dime novel that had a american indian chief named yoda that's
a little interesting after that there's not much to this place niota has a population of
about 1 000 and their crime rate is 33 above the national average their violent crime rate is 111
above this one has one of the lowest poverty levels i've seen on this list were actually
in most of tennessee in the areas that would be considered bad rural towns it's only 26 percent
higher than the national average not bad if you want to buy a home here buckle up it gets
expensive they have some really nice homes here that go for over 600 and 700 000 if you want
anything livable that's ready to go and nice it's going to be at least 200 000 on up anything below
that you run the risk of getting a visit from that couple that's on the diy show fixer-upper
all right that's today's video hope you guys enjoyed it hope you got
some information out of it now go out have a great day be nice to each other