The 10 Worst Milwaukee Suburbs

The 10 Worst Milwaukee Suburbs To Live For 2025

We’ll get the ball rolling with Racine, the absolute worst place to live around Milwaukee according to the data.

And in the world of worst rankings, Racine beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 3rd worst in the Milwaukee 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 Racine.

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 West Milwaukee. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.

This city is 3.5 miles to Milwaukee. Income levels here are the lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $48,976 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 Milwaukee suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Butler 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 Milwaukee suburbs.

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

If you live in Mount Pleasant, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 27th lowest Milwaukee suburb for median household incomes.

Not only that, but this is the 9th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Milwaukee. Remember, we looked at 57 cities for this study.

Mount Pleasant is about 24.8 miles to downtown.

West Allis has the distinction of being a Milwaukee suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.

All snarkiness aside, West Allis has the 3rd lowest home values in the metro Milwaukee area, where the median price is $265,166. The median income is $168,661.

West Allis has an unemployment rate of 3.95% which ranks 10th worst.

Sturtevant has 6,787 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 8.339968152866243%.

Ah, Hartford. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Milwaukee.

It’s the place with the 15th most out of work residents in the Milwaukee metro area (3.48%).

South Milwaukee is a city about 11.7 miles from Milwaukee, but Milwaukee 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. South Milwaukee has the 9th most uninsured people, 10th worst incomes, and has the 17th highest unemployment rate (3.4%) in the entire Milwaukee metro area.

Homes only cost $292,381 for a reason. That’s cheap for Milwaukee standards.

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

About 4.35% of residents are out of work.

Rounding out the ten worst Milwaukee suburbs to call home is Cudahy.

Located 9.6 miles outside the city, Cudahys is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 30th highest unemployment rate (2.62%), and poverty is far above the area average.