The 10 Worst Los Angeles Suburbs

The 10 Worst Los Angeles Suburbs To Live For 2025

We’ll get the ball rolling with South El Monte, the absolute worst place to live around Los Angeles according to the data.

And in the world of worst rankings, South El Monte beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 7th worst in the Los Angeles area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 20th 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 South El Monte.

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 Huntington Park. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.

This city is 11.4 miles to Los Angeles. Income levels here are the 3rd lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $56,952 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 Los Angeles suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Cudahy 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 Los Angeles suburbs.

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

If you live in Lynwood, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 9th lowest Los Angeles suburb for median household incomes.

Not only that, but this is the 2nd worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Los Angeles. Remember, we looked at 78 cities for this study.

Lynwood is about 13.7 miles to downtown.

Bell has the distinction of being a Los Angeles suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.

All snarkiness aside, Bell has the 10th lowest home values in the metro Los Angeles area, where the median price is $674,383. The median income is $250,001.

Bell has an unemployment rate of 7.38% which ranks 17th worst.

Compton has 93,525 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 17.068566034497554%.

Ah, Maywood. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Los Angeles.

It’s the place with the 27th most out of work residents in the Los Angeles metro area (6.37%).

Bell Gardens is a city about 15.2 miles from Los Angeles, but Los Angeles 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. Bell Gardens has the 3rd most uninsured people, 2nd worst incomes, and has the 35th highest unemployment rate (6.01%) in the entire Los Angeles metro area.

Homes only cost $679,797 for a reason. That’s cheap for Los Angeles standards.

If you absolutely have to live near Los Angeles, then Commerce might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst Los Angeles suburb.

About 4.51% of residents are out of work.

Rounding out the ten worst Los Angeles suburbs to call home is El Monte.

Located 22.2 miles outside the city, El Montes is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 26th highest unemployment rate (6.43%), and poverty is far above the area average.