More and more people would prefer to live in the cities and towns that surround Garland to avoid all the hustle and bustle.
So the question arises: what suburbs of Garland are the worst?
Today, we’ll use Saturday Night Science to determine which Garland ‘burbs need a little tender loving care – the sore thumbs of the Garland area if you will. Realistically, you can only expect some of the suburbs to live up to Garland proper, although University Park certainly tries.
We examined the 71 biggest suburbs of Garland to find out the worst places to live. And while you won’t necessarily find them on the worst places to live in Texas lists, these places are a little too far downwind of Garland in terms of quality of life.
$59,626 median income · $226,033 median home price
We’ll get the ball rolling with Wilmer, the absolute worst place to live around Garland according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Wilmer beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 3rd worst in the Garland area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 3rd 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 Wilmer.
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.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$65,842 median income · $281,526 median home price
Located in
Kaufman County, Texas
Welcome to Terrell. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 23.4 miles to Garland. Income levels here are the 5th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $65,842 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.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$66,743 median income · $272,216 median home price
Located in
Kaufman County, Texas
Back up the highway we go for the third worst Garland suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Seagoville 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 Garland suburbs.
But at least there are lovely parks to bring the kids during the day.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$52,292 median income · $216,651 median home price
If you live in Cockrell Hill, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 2nd lowest Garland suburb for median household incomes.
Not only that, but this is the 3rd worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Garland. Remember, we looked at 71 cities for this study.
Cockrell Hill is about 19.1 miles to downtown.
Data | Movers
$81,036 median income · $338,460 median home price
Farmersville has the distinction of being a Garland suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Farmersville has the 2lowest home values in the metro Garland area, where the median price is $338,460. The median income is $250,001.
Farmersville has an unemployment rate of 16.5% which ranks worst.
$47,829 median income · $249,516 median home price
Located in
Dallas County, Texas
Hutchins has 7,496 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 18.9%.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$66,942 median income · $224,769 median home price
Located in
Dallas County, Texas
Ah, Balch Springs. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Garland.
It’s the place with the 6th most out of work residents in the Garland metro area (8.3%).
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$68,302 median income · $272,337 median home price
Located in
Dallas County, Texas
Lancaster is a city about 23.4 miles from Garland, but Garland probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a worse place to live. Lancaster has the 23rd most uninsured people, 8th worst incomes, and has the 10th highest unemployment rate (7.2%) in the entire Garland metro area.
Homes only cost $272,337 for a reason. That’s cheap for Garland standards.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$88,997 median income · $269,919 median home price
If you absolutely have to live near Garland, then Crandall might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst Garland suburb.
About 6.3% of residents are out of work.
Data | Movers
$72,537 median income · $262,121 median home price
Located in
Kaufman County, Texas
Rounding out the ten worst Garland suburbs to call home is Mesquite.
Located 10.4 miles outside the city, Mesquite is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 23rd highest unemployment rate (5.4%), and poverty is far above the area average.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Texas’s statewide median.
Texas statewide median: $78,476
Texas statewide median: $300,957
Texas statewide median: 5.3%
Texas statewide median: 13.8%
On the map
Where the worst Garland suburbs are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Garland for 2026
To figure out how bad a Garland suburb is to live in, we used Saturday Night Science to identify the kinds of things people like and then decide what suburbs have the least amount of those things.
Using the most recent American Community Survey data from 2020-2024, this is the criteria we used:
- High unemployment rate
- Low median household incomes
- Low population density (no things to do)
- Low home values
- A lot of high school dropouts
- High poverty
- High rate of uninsured families
We defined a suburb as any town within 30 miles of Garland.
We also limited the analysis to places with over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 71 suburbs to evaluate around Garland.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 71 in each category, where 1 was the worst.
Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a quality-of-life index.
And finally, we crowned the city with the worst quality of life index, the “Worst Suburb near Garland.” We’re looking at you, Wilmer.
We updated this article for 2026, which reflects our eleventh time ranking the worst suburbs around Garland.
The full plate
Detailed List Of The Worst Garland Suburbs
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Worst Score | Population | Median Income | Median Home Values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wilmer | 4.14 | 6,391 | $59,626 | $226,033 |
| 2 | Terrell | 10.57 | 20,366 | $65,842 | $281,526 |
| 3 | Seagoville | 12.79 | 19,352 | $66,743 | $272,216 |
| 4 | Cockrell Hill | 13.57 | 3,703 | $52,292 | $216,651 |
| 5 | Farmersville | 13.79 | 4,018 | $81,036 | $338,460 |
| 6 | Hutchins | 13.86 | 7,496 | $47,829 | $249,516 |
| 7 | Balch Springs | 14.86 | 27,255 | $66,942 | $224,769 |
| 8 | Lancaster | 15.21 | 40,820 | $68,302 | $272,337 |
| 9 | Crandall | 17.14 | 4,763 | $88,997 | $269,919 |
| 10 | Mesquite | 18.00 | 149,299 | $72,537 | $262,121 |
| 11 | Combine | 18.00 | 2,785 | $94,756 | $404,771 |
| 12 | Kaufman | 18.43 | 8,538 | $62,931 | $291,010 |
| 13 | Duncanville | 19.36 | 39,683 | $76,457 | $277,367 |
| 14 | Dallas | 20.00 | 1,307,930 | $70,518 | $309,421 |
| 15 | Grand Prairie | 21.21 | 201,883 | $81,619 | $316,527 |
| 16 | Glenn Heights | 21.21 | 18,096 | $81,718 | $330,035 |
| 17 | Ferris | 22.50 | 3,238 | $89,722 | $292,617 |
| 18 | Cedar Hill | 23.43 | 48,879 | $101,909 | $314,931 |
| 19 | Irving | 24.64 | 256,492 | $81,830 | $341,503 |
| 20 | DeSoto | 25.79 | 56,211 | $82,782 | $338,710 |
| 21 | Forney | 27.07 | 31,532 | $104,112 | $311,401 |
| 22 | Josephine | 27.86 | 5,842 | $91,000 | $287,283 |
| 23 | Euless | 28.29 | 60,421 | $82,167 | $357,017 |
| 24 | Caddo Mills | 29.50 | 3,340 | $107,067 | $315,941 |
| 25 | Hackberry | 30.14 | 2,979 | $109,769 | $441,786 |
| 26 | Lakewood | 30.79 | 62,937 | $74,720 | $521,148 |
| 27 | Farmers Branch | 31.07 | 36,645 | $91,186 | $377,734 |
| 28 | Lewisville | 31.71 | 131,080 | $89,233 | $393,896 |
| 29 | Little Elm | 32.29 | 54,820 | $119,219 | $403,397 |
| 30 | Red Oak | 32.29 | 17,077 | $104,561 | $344,822 |
| 31 | Princeton | 33.93 | 25,229 | $105,200 | $294,071 |
| 32 | Richardson | 34.64 | 118,731 | $98,111 | $440,400 |
| 33 | Lake Dallas | 35.57 | 7,822 | $76,879 | $347,097 |
| 34 | Carrollton | 36.29 | 133,740 | $101,396 | $406,040 |
| 35 | Bedford | 36.71 | 49,085 | $83,971 | $374,676 |
| 36 | Grapevine | 37.50 | 51,139 | $111,376 | $552,148 |
| 37 | Wylie | 38.86 | 60,334 | $119,522 | $421,548 |
| 38 | Addison | 39.07 | 17,290 | $73,854 | $490,587 |
| 39 | Rowlett | 39.29 | 65,463 | $112,081 | $371,473 |
| 40 | Fate | 39.29 | 22,884 | $132,752 | $361,762 |
| 41 | Fairview | 39.79 | 10,783 | $109,347 | $660,166 |
| 42 | Ovilla | 39.86 | 4,375 | $131,434 | $495,093 |
| 43 | Sunnyvale | 40.07 | 8,336 | $170,348 | $631,290 |
| 44 | The Colony | 41.71 | 45,454 | $114,511 | $406,282 |
| 45 | Plano | 43.64 | 290,594 | $112,253 | $498,989 |
| 46 | Sachse | 44.14 | 30,491 | $131,808 | $433,037 |
| 47 | Rockwall | 45.14 | 51,168 | $115,580 | $480,553 |
| 48 | Melissa | 45.29 | 20,136 | $138,763 | $434,769 |
| 49 | Prosper | 46.14 | 37,869 | $195,281 | $784,350 |
| 50 | McKinney | 46.43 | 210,600 | $124,215 | $481,963 |
| 51 | Oak Point | 48.00 | 5,887 | $126,290 | $419,835 |
| 52 | Celina | 48.07 | 34,268 | $170,894 | $546,742 |
| 53 | Hickory Creek | 48.71 | 5,611 | $148,852 | $494,276 |
| 54 | Allen | 48.71 | 110,265 | $130,901 | $493,532 |
| 55 | McLendon-Chisholm | 49.00 | 4,511 | $204,773 | $667,451 |
| 56 | Parker | 49.07 | 5,999 | $229,080 | $1,088,169 |
| 57 | Lavon | 49.14 | 6,498 | $131,303 | $349,797 |
| 58 | Copper Canyon | 49.57 | 2,514 | $155,625 | $1,073,390 |
| 59 | Talty | 50.07 | 2,881 | $154,732 | $512,518 |
| 60 | Heath | 50.14 | 10,777 | $220,828 | $708,331 |
| 61 | Shady Shores | 50.29 | 2,922 | $159,375 | $522,063 |
| 62 | Frisco | 51.57 | 219,304 | $150,212 | $656,758 |
| 63 | Providence | 52.50 | 8,947 | $118,072 | $527,895 |
| 64 | Murphy | 54.14 | 21,188 | $175,699 | $571,960 |
| 65 | Flower Mound | 54.36 | 78,389 | $161,235 | $609,719 |
| 66 | Coppell | 55.14 | 42,154 | $146,235 | $619,492 |
| 67 | Double Oak | 55.14 | 3,071 | $172,321 | $845,919 |
| 68 | Lucas | 57.00 | 8,351 | $221,364 | $1,074,131 |
| 69 | Highland | 58.79 | 20,119 | $186,075 | $971,050 |
| 70 | Highland Park | 59.64 | 8,773 | $250,001 | $2,891,619 |
| 71 | University Park | 64.07 | 25,155 | $250,001 | $2,420,171 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 71 suburbs within 30 miles of Garland.
Summary
Summary: The areas around Garland where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2026
Well there you have it — the worst of the ‘burbs surrounding Garland with Wilmer casting itself ahead of the pack.
The worst suburbs of Garland are Wilmer, Terrell, Seagoville, Cockrell Hill, Farmersville, Hutchins, Balch Springs, Lancaster, Crandall, and Mesquite.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Garland aren’t all bad. University Park takes the cake as the best place to live around Garland. Not sold on Texas? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Worst Suburbs Of Garland FAQs
What is the worst suburb of Garland?
Wilmer ranks as the worst suburb around Garland for 2026, according to Saturday Night Science. Terrell and Seagoville are next on the list.
What are the worst suburbs of Garland?
The worst-ranked suburbs around Garland are Wilmer, Terrell, Seagoville, Cockrell Hill, Farmersville, Hutchins, Balch Springs, Lancaster, Crandall, and Mesquite. We scored all 71 places within 30 miles.
Why does Wilmer rank as the worst suburb?
Wilmer posts the roughest combined numbers of the 71 suburbs we scored: a median household income of $59,626, a median home value of $226,033, and a poverty rate of 32.7%.
What is the best-ranked suburb near Garland?
University Park lands at the opposite end of this ranking, making it the best-ranked suburb near Garland by these measures. Our separate best suburbs of Garland list covers that side properly.
How do you rank the worst suburbs?
Suburbs are scored on unemployment, income, density, home values, dropouts, poverty, and insurance coverage, using Census American Community Survey data. Real numbers, light heart — every one of these towns has people making it work.
