Do you live in a "dirty" city?

There are typically a few traits that constitute filth, and for the purpose of this article, we're going to zoom in on pollution, resident dissatisfaction, infrastructure, and living conditions. While someone's definition of "dirty" might differ from another's, there are a few general scenes like trash overflowing onto a sidewalk or an increased number of rats and bugs crawling inside an unkept building, that everyone can agree is pretty dirty.

While there are probably a few dirty places scattered across Pennsylvania, only one is known for being the least clean around.

According to a list compiled by LawnStarter, the dirtiest city in all of Pennsylvania is Reading. This city also ranked among the dirtiest cities in the entire country (3).

Here's what LawnStarter had to say about compiling the data to discover the dirtiest cities in the United States:

"First, we determined the factors (metrics) that are most relevant to rank the Dirtiest Cities in America. We then assigned a weight to each factor based on its importance and grouped those factors into 4 categories: Pollution, Living Conditions, Infrastructure, and Resident Dissatisfaction. The categories, factors, and their weights are listed in the table below. For each of the 500 biggest U.S. cities, we then gathered data on each factor from the sources listed below the table. We eliminated 197 cities lacking sufficient data in a single category, resulting in a final sample size of 303 cities. Finally, we calculated scores (out of 100 points) for each city to determine its rank in each factor, each category, and overall."

Check out LawnStarter for the full list!

Patty Jackson