New Map Points the Way to America’s Cleanest and Dirtiest Cities

America is home to iconic cities that attract visitors from around the world, drawn to factors like culture, entertainment, architecture, and dining. But I’m sure you can agree that everyday factors can be a lot more important when choosing a city to live in. The OxiFresh team shows us that cleanliness can have a huge impact on quality of life with a new study that determines the cleanest cities.

Cleanliness might seem a little subjective, but the team did a fantastic job proving that we can apply a method to our judgment. They used these factors to rank the cities and scored them out of 100 for each category:

• Population Density: Number of people per square mile
• Rodents: Number of houses with signs of mice and rats
• Cockroaches: Percentage of homes with signs of cockroaches
• Vandalism: Percentage of homes with vandalism in the vicinity
• Litter: Percentage of homes with litter in the vicinity
• Air Quality: Number of days in 2024 with an Air Quality Index value classified as “good”
• Tap Water Quality: Average number of contaminants in water that exceed the Environmental Working Group health guidelines

This tells us that OxiFresh considered cleanliness to mean that a city is free of trash and has limited pollution and pest infestations. What do you think of their methodology? Did they miss anything? Many people think that clean cities are more welcoming, offer better first impressions, and are just all-around more enjoyable places to live in and visit.

As for the results, these cities got the highest cleanliness scores:

1. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Oregon/Washington
2. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington
3. Rochester, New York
4. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan
5. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minnesota/Wisconsin
6. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
7. Richmond, Virginia
8. Denver-Aurora-Centennial, Colorado
9. Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, Arizona
10. Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas

But the dirt on the dirtiest cities is interesting too. These 10 cities got the lowest scores:

1. New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York/New Jersey
2. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California
3. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pennsylvania/New Jersey/Delaware/Maryland
4. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, Texas
5. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, Washington, DC/Virginia/Maryland/West Virginia
6. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Illinois/Indiana
7. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
8. Birmingham, Alabama
9. Cincinnati, Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana
10. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

All this leads us to ask what makes some cities cleaner than others? The OxiFresh researchers took the approach that a high population density can strain resources for trash removal and increase the likelihood of pollution and litter. It’s no coincidence that many of the cities with the lowest scores have the highest populations.

A big population doesn’t have to lead to a dirty destiny, though. Seattle is a large city, but the local government’s commitment to litter cleanup initiatives has clearly paid off since it has the second highest cleanliness score, and it’s often ranked as one of the best U.S. cities to live in.

This map can serve as a reminder that recycling, being a responsible neighbor, and government commitment to keeping the environment healthy can all have a major impact on a city. A city’s cleanliness is the result of the actions of many individuals.