This morning I was reading in RoadSnacks about the 5 worst cities to live in in Minnesota and was kind of surprised at the results of this in depth study of the worst cities to live in in Minnesota.

I automatically assumed that the worst city to live in would be one of the larger ones, but I would be wrong. The results of this study came from several sources including the FBI and census.

Here are the they found to be 5 worst cities to live in in Minnesota;

  • # 5   West St Paul

West St Paul is actually south of St Paul metro. Economy is sluggish to suckish. West St Paul has a high crime rate at about 200% over the national average. Median income is around $56,000 and unemployment is at around 6.3%.

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  •  #4  Brooklyn Center

Brooklyn Center despite having a good housing market and some other positive attributes, suffers from a high crime rate. Seems this is a trend in most places in close proximity to Minneapolis.

  •  #3  Little Virginia

Not much good to say about this quaint little town. Population at about 8500 and the crime rate is the 25th highest in Minnesota. Houses are cheap, though. Medium house price is a little over $92,000. Might be tough to afford even that with an unemployment rate way above average.

  •  #2  Bemidji

Unfortunately for Bemidji, the crime rate there is the 2nd highest in the state per capita.  If fact, if you were a resident in 2020, you'd have about a 1 in 12 chance being robbed. With a fairly high unemployment rate and low medium income ($32,193) what's to rob?

  •  #1 Waite Park  

I have to admit that I was a bit surprised by this. Years ago I lived in Waite Park for about a year. I had no issues but things have changed there over the years, I guess.

Home values and medium income aren't the greatest, in fact they are pretty low. The big problem with Waite Park, according to RoadSnacks is the crime rate. Waite park has the worst crime rate per capita in Minnesota. 1 in 11.9 residents were a victim of a reported theft last year.

I have to believe that a lot of the crime stats from Waite Park are partly due to the large amount of retail businesses there. I remember a few years ago that there were an inordinate number of car break ins and purse snatchings.

All in all, I don't think Waite Park is as bad as the stats make it look. Good restaurants,  sports bars and retail.  IMO, Waite Park rocks because they have a Taco Johns. It's the little things, right?

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