Los Angeles, New York City and Detroit have been named the three North American cities with the lowest quality of life, according to Numbeo’s Northern America Current Quality of Life Index. The ranking assessed 73 cities in the United States and Canada using factors including safety, affordability, pollution and transportation. Numbeo, the world’s largest crowd-sourced online database, compiled the results from user surveys and other data. Los Angeles placed last overall, with New York City and Detroit following behind. Los Angeles recorded the region’s worst pollution and traffic conditions, along with the fourth-lowest climate score. New York had North America’s least favorable property price-to-income ratio and ranked near the bottom for both cost of living and purchasing power, trailing only Honolulu in those categories. Detroit performed worst for safety, had the second-highest pollution levels and recorded the fourth-worst commute.
Reputations reflected in quality-of-life rankings
The results reflect long-standing perceptions of all three cities: Los Angeles is often associated with gridlocked roads and smog, New York with steep living expenses, and Detroit with crime and signs of urban decline. Numbeo based its quality of life rankings on eight measures: purchasing power, safety, health care, cost of living, property prices relative to income, traffic, pollution and climate. Both New York and Los Angeles appeared among the five lowest-ranked cities for purchasing power, while Detroit placed 11th from the bottom.
Detroit ranks worst for safety
Detroit’s safety score was substantially worse than those of the other two cities. Los Angeles ranked 29th from the bottom for safety, while New York was 37th from the bottom. Health care rankings were also unfavorable for Los Angeles, which placed seventh-worst, followed by Detroit at 10th-worst and New York at 13th-worst. Canada dominated the top five spots for health care. New York ranked among the two weakest cities for purchasing power, with Los Angeles ninth-worst; Detroit, by contrast, landed in the upper half at 26th-best.
New York, Los Angeles and Detroit struggle
New York recorded the continent’s weakest property price-to-income result, while Los Angeles ranked eighth-worst. Detroit again performed comparatively better, placing 34th overall for that measure. Traffic was another major weakness for the three cities: Los Angeles ranked worst, Detroit fourth-worst and New York sixth-worst. Pollution scores were similarly poor, with Los Angeles at the bottom, Detroit second-worst and New York sixth-worst.
Ottawa tops North American quality of life
Los Angeles also had the weakest climate ranking among the three, finishing fourth from last. New York placed 30th-worst for climate, while Detroit ranked 26th-best. Three more US cities—Miami, Las Vegas and Phoenix—joined the bottom 10 for quality of life, in that order, alongside four Canadian cities. At the opposite end of the list, Ottawa topped the North American rankings, followed by Raleigh, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas. Spokane, Washington, ranked fifth overall and third among US cities.
