The 10 Worst St. Louis Suburbs

The 10 Worst St. Louis Suburbs To Live For 2026

We’ll get the ball rolling with East St. Louis, the absolute worst place to live around St. Louis according to the data.

And in the world of worst rankings, East St. Louis beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 4th worst in the St. Louis area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks worst when it comes to home values.

But hey, at least it’s cheap to live there. But there’s a reason for that… it’s East St. Louis.

You won’t feel bad about not having a great income for the area. There aren’t a bunch of places to spend your money anyway.

Welcome to Madison. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.

This city is 7.8 miles to St. Louis. Income levels here are the 15th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $49,326 a year, which only goes so far even on a shoestring budget.

But on the bright side, there are a lot of fast food joints in the area.

Back up the highway we go for the third worst St. Louis suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Pine Lawn on here. While the cost of living is low, your entertainment and work options are limited. And that’s an understatement.

In terms of numbers, it’s in the worst 15% for insurance, and the adult high school dropout rate is poor compared to other St. Louis suburbs.

But at least there are lovely parks to bring the kids during the day.

If you live in Berkeley, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 8th lowest St. Louis suburb for median household incomes.

Not only that, but this is the 28th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near St. Louis. Remember, we looked at 94 cities for this study.

Berkeley is about 8.9 miles to downtown.

Pagedale has the distinction of being a St. Louis suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.

All snarkiness aside, Pagedale has the 6th lowest home values in the metro St. Louis area, where the median price is $74,647. The median income is $250,001.

Pagedale has an unemployment rate of 10.97% which ranks 8th worst.

Jennings has 12,918 residents that probably know it’s a pretty crummy place to live when you look at the data. (Or, if you’ve ever been there, you don’t need to look at the data.)

Incomes are towards the bottom, and the poverty rate sits at 25.15969338869371%.

Ah, Normandy. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around St. Louis.

It’s the place with the 4th most out of work residents in the St. Louis metro area (15.65%).

Bel-Ridge is a city about 7.0 miles from St. Louis, but St. Louis probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb for 2018.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a worse place to live. Bel-Ridge has the 13th most uninsured people, 5th worst incomes, and has the 3rd highest unemployment rate (15.94%) in the entire St. Louis metro area.

Homes only cost $77,465 for a reason. That’s cheap for St. Louis standards.

If you absolutely have to live near St. Louis, then Breckenridge Hills might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst St. Louis suburb.

About 10.24% of residents are out of work.

Rounding out the ten worst St. Louis suburbs to call home is South Roxana.

Located 16.0 miles outside the city, South Roxanas is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 27th highest unemployment rate (5.71%), and poverty is far above the area average.