America’s Cleanest and Dirtiest Cities

By Samanda Dorger

All cities have to manage cleanliness, whether it’s monitoring air and water quality or handling trash pickup, litter, vandalism and vermin infestations.

But what makes a city truly “clean?”

There’s no single answer. A combination of those elements, ranging from population density to the air we breathe, determines whether a city is hospitably tidy or or hazardous to your health.

A recent study ranked 35 large U.S. cities on cleanliness based on seven factors, including air and water quality, rats, cockroaches, vandalism, litter and population density. The ranking was conducted by franchised carpet cleaning company OxiFresh, which boasts environmentally-friendly cleaning methods, using data from the Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey, Environmental Working Group, the EPA and CensusReporter.org.

These cities had the highest grades overall for cleanliness:

Portland Oregon: A+

Seattle: A

Rochester, New York: A-

These cities had the lowest grades for overall cleanliness:

New York: D

Los Angeles: D+

Philadelphia: D+

Several large metros were excluded due to lack of data. See the full ranking and methodology here.