Cities with America’s lowest quality of life revealed, with Los Angeles, New York and

Los Angeles, New York City and Detroit have been ranked as the cities with the lowest quality of life in North America. 

The findings were revealed in Numbeo’s Northern America Current Quality of Life Index, which ranked 73 cities across the US and Canada based on metrics such as safety, cost of living and pollution. 

Numbeo is the world’s largest crowd-sourced online database. It determined the rankings through data and user surveys collected by the company.

Los Angeles came in dead last on the list, followed by New York City, then Detroit. 

Regarding specific metrics, Los Angeles had the worst pollution and traffic commute. It also had the fourth-worst climate. 

New York City was last in property price to income ratio. It was also second-last in cost of living and purchasing power, beaten out only by Honolulu, Hawaii, in both cases.

Detroit stood out for having the poorest safety and the second-worst pollution. It also had the fourth-worst traffic commute.

The quality of life index’s findings line up with the negative aspects of the cities’ reputations, with Los Angeles being known for its traffic jams and smog, New York City for its extreme costliness and Detroit for its crime and urban decay. 

Los Angeles was ranked as the city with the lowest quality of life in North America. It performed particularly poorly on metrics including pollution and traffic commute 

New York City was ranked as having the second-lowest quality of life. It had the worst property price to income ratio and the second-worst cost of living and purchasing power

Detroit was ranked as having the third-worst quality of life. It stood out for placing last in safety and second-last in pollution

The index used a total of eight metrics: purchasing power, safety, health care, cost of living, property price to income, traffic commute, pollution and climate. 

New York and Los Angeles both made the bottom five for purchasing power. Detroit was the 11th-worst.

Detroit dramatically beat out the other two cities for worst safety. Los Angeles was listed as the 29th-worst in safety, and New York the 37th worst. 

Los Angeles came in as the seventh-worst for health care, followed by Detroit in 10th place and New York in 13th. The five cities with the best health care in North America were all in Canada. 

New York was bottom two for purchasing power, and Los Angeles was the ninth worst. Detroit actually made it into the top half of the list for purchasing power as 26th best.

New York was bottom of the list for property price to income, while Los Angeles was eighth worst. Detroit once again just about made it to the top half of the list for the metric as 34th best.

Los Angeles, Detroit and New York were listed as the absolute worst, fourth-worst and sixth-worst for traffic commute, respectively. 

New York was also listed as sixth worst for pollution, beaten out by Detroit as second worst and Los Angeles as absolute worst. 

New York City’s metrics lined up with its reputation for being extremely expensive. The city’s Billionaire Row, where apartments can cost hundreds of millions of dollars, is pictured

Los Angeles’s metrics aligned with its reputation for being smoggy and having traffic jams. The city’s downtown is pictured amid dense smog

Detroit’s metrics lined up with its reputation for crime and urban decay. A row of dilapidated houses in the city is pictured

Los Angeles had the most dismal climate of the three by far, taking the fourth-to-last spot. New York was listed as the 30th worst climate, and Detroit was actually listed as 26th best. 

Three other US cities made the bottom-10 for quality of life on the list, including Miami, Las Vegas and Phoenix, in that order. The remaining four cities in the bottom 10 were in Canada. 

The North American cities with the highest quality of life, according to the list, were Ottawa, Canada, followed by Raleigh, North Carolina, then Austin, Texas. 

Spokane, Washington, was listed as having the fifth-highest quality of life in North America, or the third-best in the US.