More and more people would prefer to live in the cities and towns that surround Plano to avoid all the hustle and bustle.
So the question arises: what suburbs of Plano are the worst?
Today, we’ll use Saturday Night Science to determine which Plano ‘burbs need a little tender loving care – the sore thumbs of the Plano area if you will. Realistically, you can only expect some of the suburbs to live up to Plano proper, although University Park certainly tries.
We examined the 74 biggest suburbs of Plano 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 Plano in terms of quality of life.
$66,743 median income · $272,216 median home price
Located in
Kaufman County, Texas
We’ll get the ball rolling with Seagoville, the absolute worst place to live around Plano according to the data.
And in the world of worst rankings, Seagoville beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 3rd worst in the Plano area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 5th 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 Seagoville.
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
$81,036 median income · $338,460 median home price
Welcome to Farmersville. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.
This city is 23.7 miles to Plano. Income levels here are the 14th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $81,036 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.
$47,829 median income · $249,516 median home price
Located in
Dallas County, Texas
Back up the highway we go for the third worst Plano suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Hutchins 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 Plano 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 Plano 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 Plano. Remember, we looked at 74 cities for this study.
Cockrell Hill is about 23.1 miles to downtown.
Data | Movers
$66,942 median income · $224,769 median home price
Located in
Dallas County, Texas
Balch Springs has the distinction of being a Plano suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.
All snarkiness aside, Balch Springs has the 2nd lowest home values in the metro Plano area, where the median price is $224,769. The median income is $250,001.
Balch Springs has an unemployment rate of 8.3% which ranks 4th worst.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$72,537 median income · $262,121 median home price
Located in
Kaufman County, Texas
Mesquite has 149,299 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 13.4%.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$97,933 median income · $329,619 median home price
Ah, Pilot Point. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Plano.
It’s the place with the 9th most out of work residents in the Plano metro area (6.3%).
Data | Movers
$70,518 median income · $309,421 median home price
Located in
Rockwall County, Texas
Dallas is a city about 17.8 miles from Plano, but Plano 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. Dallas has the 7th most uninsured people, 5th worst incomes, and has the 23rd highest unemployment rate (4.9%) in the entire Plano metro area.
Homes only cost $309,421 for a reason. That’s cheap for Plano standards.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers | Compare
$76,457 median income · $277,367 median home price
Located in
Dallas County, Texas
If you absolutely have to live near Plano, then Duncanville might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst Plano suburb.
About 7.1% of residents are out of work.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$81,619 median income · $316,527 median home price
Located in
Tarrant County, Texas
Rounding out the ten worst Plano suburbs to call home is Grand Prairie.
Located 29.9 miles outside the city, Grand Prairie is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 18th highest unemployment rate (5.2%), 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 Plano suburbs are
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: Determining The Worst Suburbs Around Plano for 2026
To figure out how bad a Plano 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 Plano.
We also limited the analysis to places with over 2,000 people. This left us with a grand total of 74 suburbs to evaluate around Plano.
We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 74 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 Plano.” We’re looking at you, Seagoville.
We updated this article for 2026, which reflects our eleventh time ranking the worst suburbs around Plano.
The full plate
Detailed List Of The Worst Plano Suburbs
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Worst Score | Population | Median Income | Median Home Values |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seagoville | 10.50 | 19,352 | $66,743 | $272,216 |
| 2 | Farmersville | 11.79 | 4,018 | $81,036 | $338,460 |
| 3 | Hutchins | 13.29 | 7,496 | $47,829 | $249,516 |
| 4 | Cockrell Hill | 13.29 | 3,703 | $52,292 | $216,651 |
| 5 | Balch Springs | 13.86 | 27,255 | $66,942 | $224,769 |
| 6 | Mesquite | 16.00 | 149,299 | $72,537 | $262,121 |
| 7 | Pilot Point | 16.86 | 5,332 | $97,933 | $329,619 |
| 8 | Dallas | 17.36 | 1,307,930 | $70,518 | $309,421 |
| 9 | Duncanville | 17.57 | 39,683 | $76,457 | $277,367 |
| 10 | Grand Prairie | 18.64 | 201,883 | $81,619 | $316,527 |
| 11 | Garland | 18.79 | 246,844 | $76,320 | $286,805 |
| 12 | Denton | 19.50 | 152,866 | $76,019 | $354,135 |
| 13 | Irving | 22.43 | 256,492 | $81,830 | $341,503 |
| 14 | Forney | 23.36 | 31,532 | $104,112 | $311,401 |
| 15 | Cross Roads | 24.57 | 2,035 | $124,145 | $337,284 |
| 16 | Euless | 25.71 | 60,421 | $82,167 | $357,017 |
| 17 | Josephine | 26.07 | 5,842 | $91,000 | $287,283 |
| 18 | Caddo Mills | 26.79 | 3,340 | $107,067 | $315,941 |
| 19 | Hackberry | 27.36 | 2,979 | $109,769 | $441,786 |
| 20 | Lakewood | 27.64 | 62,937 | $74,720 | $521,148 |
| 21 | Hurst | 28.21 | 39,861 | $72,210 | $337,204 |
| 22 | Little Elm | 28.86 | 54,820 | $119,219 | $403,397 |
| 23 | Farmers Branch | 28.93 | 36,645 | $91,186 | $377,734 |
| 24 | Lewisville | 29.36 | 131,080 | $89,233 | $393,896 |
| 25 | Anna | 29.57 | 24,330 | $105,593 | $349,537 |
| 26 | Roanoke | 30.21 | 10,286 | $97,295 | $428,021 |
| 27 | Princeton | 31.14 | 25,229 | $105,200 | $294,071 |
| 28 | Richardson | 31.79 | 118,731 | $98,111 | $440,400 |
| 29 | Van Alstyne | 32.43 | 5,952 | $102,469 | $433,827 |
| 30 | Lake Dallas | 32.86 | 7,822 | $76,879 | $347,097 |
| 31 | Carrollton | 33.29 | 133,740 | $101,396 | $406,040 |
| 32 | Bedford | 33.93 | 49,085 | $83,971 | $374,676 |
| 33 | Grapevine | 34.64 | 51,139 | $111,376 | $552,148 |
| 34 | Wylie | 35.79 | 60,334 | $119,522 | $421,548 |
| 35 | Fate | 35.86 | 22,884 | $132,752 | $361,762 |
| 36 | Rowlett | 36.79 | 65,463 | $112,081 | $371,473 |
| 37 | Addison | 37.07 | 17,290 | $73,854 | $490,587 |
| 38 | Fairview | 37.21 | 10,783 | $109,347 | $660,166 |
| 39 | Aubrey | 37.29 | 7,396 | $101,574 | $363,613 |
| 40 | Sunnyvale | 38.64 | 8,336 | $170,348 | $631,290 |
| 41 | The Colony | 38.86 | 45,454 | $114,511 | $406,282 |
| 42 | Northlake | 39.57 | 8,283 | $123,469 | $497,061 |
| 43 | Sachse | 41.29 | 30,491 | $131,808 | $433,037 |
| 44 | Bartonville | 42.64 | 2,112 | $149,071 | $1,403,732 |
| 45 | Rockwall | 43.14 | 51,168 | $115,580 | $480,553 |
| 46 | Melissa | 44.00 | 20,136 | $138,763 | $434,769 |
| 47 | McKinney | 44.57 | 210,600 | $124,215 | $481,963 |
| 48 | Prosper | 45.07 | 37,869 | $195,281 | $784,350 |
| 49 | Celina | 46.36 | 34,268 | $170,894 | $546,742 |
| 50 | Hickory Creek | 47.14 | 5,611 | $148,852 | $494,276 |
| 51 | Lavon | 47.29 | 6,498 | $131,303 | $349,797 |
| 52 | Allen | 47.43 | 110,265 | $130,901 | $493,532 |
| 53 | Oak Point | 48.07 | 5,887 | $126,290 | $419,835 |
| 54 | Shady Shores | 48.21 | 2,922 | $159,375 | $522,063 |
| 55 | McLendon-Chisholm | 48.43 | 4,511 | $204,773 | $667,451 |
| 56 | Corinth | 49.00 | 23,385 | $120,580 | $410,565 |
| 57 | Copper Canyon | 49.29 | 2,514 | $155,625 | $1,073,390 |
| 58 | Parker | 49.36 | 5,999 | $229,080 | $1,088,169 |
| 59 | Frisco | 50.14 | 219,304 | $150,212 | $656,758 |
| 60 | Heath | 50.36 | 10,777 | $220,828 | $708,331 |
| 61 | Providence | 51.57 | 8,947 | $118,072 | $527,895 |
| 62 | Argyle | 52.21 | 5,371 | $181,352 | $594,342 |
| 63 | Murphy | 52.29 | 21,188 | $175,699 | $571,960 |
| 64 | Flower Mound | 52.57 | 78,389 | $161,235 | $609,719 |
| 65 | Coppell | 54.07 | 42,154 | $146,235 | $619,492 |
| 66 | Double Oak | 54.29 | 3,071 | $172,321 | $845,919 |
| 67 | Keller | 56.07 | 45,976 | $174,950 | $652,144 |
| 68 | Lucas | 57.86 | 8,351 | $221,364 | $1,074,131 |
| 69 | Highland | 58.57 | 20,119 | $186,075 | $971,050 |
| 70 | Highland Park | 60.14 | 8,773 | $250,001 | $2,891,619 |
| 71 | Trophy Club | 60.50 | 13,733 | $201,054 | $701,041 |
| 72 | Colleyville | 61.00 | 26,012 | $218,328 | $913,049 |
| 73 | Southlake | 64.00 | 31,137 | $250,001 | $1,301,365 |
| 74 | University Park | 64.43 | 25,155 | $250,001 | $2,420,171 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 74 suburbs within 30 miles of Plano.
Summary
Summary: The areas around Plano where the dream is more of a nightmare for 2026
Well there you have it — the worst of the ‘burbs surrounding Plano with Seagoville casting itself ahead of the pack.
The worst suburbs of Plano are Seagoville, Farmersville, Hutchins, Cockrell Hill, Balch Springs, Mesquite, Pilot Point, Dallas, Duncanville, and Grand Prairie.
As we mentioned earlier, the suburbs around Plano aren’t all bad. University Park takes the cake as the best place to live around Plano. 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 Plano FAQs
What is the worst suburb of Plano?
Seagoville ranks as the worst suburb around Plano for 2026, according to Saturday Night Science. Farmersville and Hutchins are next on the list.
What are the worst suburbs of Plano?
The worst-ranked suburbs around Plano are Seagoville, Farmersville, Hutchins, Cockrell Hill, Balch Springs, Mesquite, Pilot Point, Dallas, Duncanville, and Grand Prairie. We scored all 74 places within 30 miles.
Why does Seagoville rank as the worst suburb?
Seagoville posts the roughest combined numbers of the 74 suburbs we scored: a median household income of $66,743, a median home value of $272,216, and a poverty rate of 11.8%.
What is the best-ranked suburb near Plano?
University Park lands at the opposite end of this ranking, making it the best-ranked suburb near Plano by these measures. Our separate best suburbs of Plano 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.
