More and more people would prefer to live in the cities and towns that surround Grand Prairie to avoid all the hustle and bustle.
So the question arises: what suburbs of Grand Prairie are the worst?
Today, we’ll use Saturday Night Science to determine which Grand Prairie ‘burbs need a little tender loving care – the sore thumbs of the Grand Prairie area if you will. Realistically, you can only expect some of the suburbs to live up to Grand Prairie proper, although University Park certainly tries.
We examined the 71 biggest suburbs of Grand Prairie 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 Grand Prairie 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 Grand Prairie 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 6th worst in the Grand Prairie area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 8th 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
$42,257 median income · $200,627 median home price
Welcome to Sansom Park. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 23.6 miles to Grand Prairie. Income levels here are the lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $42,257 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
$68,311 median income · $219,884 median home price
Located in
Tarrant County, Texas
Back up the highway we go for the third worst Grand Prairie suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Everman 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 Grand Prairie suburbs.
But at least there are lovely parks to bring the kids during the day.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$51,695 median income · $254,365 median home price
Located in
Johnson County, Texas
If you live in Keene, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the 3rd lowest Grand Prairie suburb for median household incomes.
Not only that, but this is the 2worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Grand Prairie. Remember, we looked at 71 cities for this study.
Keene is about 26.5 miles to downtown.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$66,743 median income · $272,216 median home price
Located in
Kaufman County, Texas
Seagoville has the distinction of being a Grand Prairie suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Seagoville has the 14th lowest home values in the metro Grand Prairie area, where the median price is $272,216. The median income is $250,001.
Seagoville has an unemployment rate of 4.6% which ranks 32nd worst.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$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
$52,292 median income · $216,651 median home price
Ah, Cockrell Hill. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Grand Prairie.
It’s the place with the 2nd most out of work residents in the Grand Prairie metro area (11.1%).
Data | Movers
$63,500 median income · $222,017 median home price
Located in
Tarrant County, Texas
River Oaks is a city about 22.8 miles from Grand Prairie, but Grand Prairie 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. River Oaks has the 4th most uninsured people, 7th worst incomes, and has the 13th highest unemployment rate (6.0%) in the entire Grand Prairie metro area.
Homes only cost $222,017 for a reason. That’s cheap for Grand Prairie standards.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$66,942 median income · $224,769 median home price
Located in
Dallas County, Texas
If you absolutely have to live near Grand Prairie, then Balch Springs might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst Grand Prairie suburb.
About 8.3% of residents are out of work.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$81,910 median income · $235,197 median home price
Rounding out the ten worst Grand Prairie suburbs to call home is Lake Worth.
Located 25.4 miles outside the city, Lake Worth is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 6th highest unemployment rate (7.7%), and poverty is far above the area average.
Data | 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 Grand Prairie suburbs are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Grand Prairie for 2026
To figure out how bad a Grand Prairie 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 Grand Prairie.
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 Grand Prairie.
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 Grand Prairie.” We’re looking at you, Wilmer.
We updated this article for 2026, which reflects our eleventh time ranking the worst suburbs around Grand Prairie.
The full plate
Detailed List Of The Worst Grand Prairie Suburbs
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Worst Score | Population | Median Income | Median Home Values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wilmer | 4.43 | 6,391 | $59,626 | $226,033 |
| 2 | Sansom Park | 12.71 | 5,392 | $42,257 | $200,627 |
| 3 | Everman | 13.43 | 6,106 | $68,311 | $219,884 |
| 4 | Keene | 14.43 | 6,691 | $51,695 | $254,365 |
| 5 | Seagoville | 14.57 | 19,352 | $66,743 | $272,216 |
| 6 | Hutchins | 14.71 | 7,496 | $47,829 | $249,516 |
| 7 | Cockrell Hill | 15.43 | 3,703 | $52,292 | $216,651 |
| 8 | River Oaks | 16.14 | 7,584 | $63,500 | $222,017 |
| 9 | Balch Springs | 16.86 | 27,255 | $66,942 | $224,769 |
| 10 | Lake Worth | 17.57 | 4,829 | $81,910 | $235,197 |
| 11 | Lancaster | 17.79 | 40,820 | $68,302 | $272,337 |
| 12 | Alvarado | 20.14 | 6,307 | $80,523 | $305,899 |
| 13 | Forest Hill | 20.29 | 14,062 | $68,457 | $226,976 |
| 14 | Mesquite | 21.14 | 149,299 | $72,537 | $262,121 |
| 15 | Dallas | 22.36 | 1,307,930 | $70,518 | $309,421 |
| 16 | White Settlement | 22.43 | 18,150 | $56,784 | $220,447 |
| 17 | Duncanville | 23.07 | 39,683 | $76,457 | $277,367 |
| 18 | Garland | 24.79 | 246,844 | $76,320 | $286,805 |
| 19 | Fort Worth | 24.79 | 963,194 | $79,507 | $298,051 |
| 20 | Glenn Heights | 25.36 | 18,096 | $81,718 | $330,035 |
| 21 | Ferris | 26.50 | 3,238 | $89,722 | $292,617 |
| 22 | Arlington | 27.00 | 397,742 | $75,171 | $310,971 |
| 23 | Blue Mound | 28.14 | 2,366 | $66,375 | $221,761 |
| 24 | Richland Hills | 28.50 | 8,493 | $66,721 | $286,289 |
| 25 | Irving | 29.07 | 256,492 | $81,830 | $341,503 |
| 26 | Joshua | 29.29 | 8,550 | $68,117 | $355,622 |
| 27 | Palmer | 29.43 | 2,515 | $104,258 | $321,007 |
| 28 | Cedar Hill | 30.00 | 48,879 | $101,909 | $314,931 |
| 29 | Watauga | 31.29 | 23,233 | $91,171 | $277,103 |
| 30 | DeSoto | 32.14 | 56,211 | $82,782 | $338,710 |
| 31 | Venus | 33.79 | 6,745 | $106,023 | $321,977 |
| 32 | Euless | 33.93 | 60,421 | $82,167 | $357,017 |
| 33 | Waxahachie | 34.57 | 45,347 | $85,723 | $370,257 |
| 34 | Kennedale | 34.71 | 9,439 | $118,794 | $383,332 |
| 35 | Farmers Branch | 36.86 | 36,645 | $91,186 | $377,734 |
| 36 | Hurst | 37.14 | 39,861 | $72,210 | $337,204 |
| 37 | Pantego | 37.50 | 2,337 | $71,293 | $348,641 |
| 38 | Lewisville | 38.07 | 131,080 | $89,233 | $393,896 |
| 39 | Red Oak | 38.21 | 17,077 | $104,561 | $344,822 |
| 40 | Benbrook | 38.64 | 24,557 | $86,292 | $316,645 |
| 41 | Crowley | 38.64 | 19,532 | $95,030 | $314,947 |
| 42 | Roanoke | 39.57 | 10,286 | $97,295 | $428,021 |
| 43 | Saginaw | 39.93 | 24,970 | $97,276 | $299,871 |
| 44 | Richardson | 41.14 | 118,731 | $98,111 | $440,400 |
| 45 | Midlothian | 42.07 | 39,356 | $126,641 | $450,602 |
| 46 | Burleson | 42.07 | 52,918 | $93,928 | $338,945 |
| 47 | Ovilla | 42.29 | 4,375 | $131,434 | $495,093 |
| 48 | Carrollton | 42.57 | 133,740 | $101,396 | $406,040 |
| 49 | Grapevine | 43.00 | 51,139 | $111,376 | $552,148 |
| 50 | Bedford | 43.50 | 49,085 | $83,971 | $374,676 |
| 51 | Sunnyvale | 43.71 | 8,336 | $170,348 | $631,290 |
| 52 | Addison | 44.07 | 17,290 | $73,854 | $490,587 |
| 53 | North Richland Hills | 46.43 | 70,780 | $97,305 | $367,728 |
| 54 | Mansfield | 46.64 | 77,510 | $121,126 | $444,293 |
| 55 | The Colony | 47.71 | 45,454 | $114,511 | $406,282 |
| 56 | Dalworthington Gardens | 47.79 | 2,180 | $138,594 | $549,787 |
| 57 | Bartonville | 48.57 | 2,112 | $149,071 | $1,403,732 |
| 58 | Plano | 50.00 | 290,594 | $112,253 | $498,989 |
| 59 | Copper Canyon | 50.00 | 2,514 | $155,625 | $1,073,390 |
| 60 | Hickory Creek | 51.86 | 5,611 | $148,852 | $494,276 |
| 61 | Haslet | 53.07 | 3,280 | $169,046 | $389,006 |
| 62 | Flower Mound | 55.36 | 78,389 | $161,235 | $609,719 |
| 63 | Double Oak | 56.64 | 3,071 | $172,321 | $845,919 |
| 64 | Coppell | 57.71 | 42,154 | $146,235 | $619,492 |
| 65 | Highland | 58.36 | 20,119 | $186,075 | $971,050 |
| 66 | Keller | 58.57 | 45,976 | $174,950 | $652,144 |
| 67 | Colleyville | 60.36 | 26,012 | $218,328 | $913,049 |
| 68 | Highland Park | 60.43 | 8,773 | $250,001 | $2,891,619 |
| 69 | Trophy Club | 61.14 | 13,733 | $201,054 | $701,041 |
| 70 | Southlake | 61.43 | 31,137 | $250,001 | $1,301,365 |
| 71 | University Park | 64.14 | 25,155 | $250,001 | $2,420,171 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 71 suburbs within 30 miles of Grand Prairie.
Summary
Summary: The areas around Grand Prairie where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2026
Well there you have it — the worst of the ‘burbs surrounding Grand Prairie with Wilmer casting itself ahead of the pack.
The worst suburbs of Grand Prairie are Wilmer, Sansom Park, Everman, Keene, Seagoville, Hutchins, Cockrell Hill, River Oaks, Balch Springs, and Lake Worth.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Grand Prairie aren’t all bad. University Park takes the cake as the best place to live around Grand Prairie. 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 Grand Prairie FAQs
What is the worst suburb of Grand Prairie?
Wilmer ranks as the worst suburb around Grand Prairie for 2026, according to Saturday Night Science. Sansom Park and Everman are next on the list.
What are the worst suburbs of Grand Prairie?
The worst-ranked suburbs around Grand Prairie are Wilmer, Sansom Park, Everman, Keene, Seagoville, Hutchins, Cockrell Hill, River Oaks, Balch Springs, and Lake Worth. 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 Grand Prairie?
University Park lands at the opposite end of this ranking, making it the best-ranked suburb near Grand Prairie by these measures. Our separate best suburbs of Grand Prairie 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.
