Los Angeles, New York City, and Detroit Rank Lowest in North American Quality of Life Index

Los Angeles, New York City, and Detroit have been identified as the North American cities with the lowest quality of life, according to the latest Numbeo's Northern America Current Quality of Life Index. The findings, compiled from crowd-sourced data and user surveys, ranked 73 cities across the United States and Canada based on eight key metrics.

Los Angeles was ranked last overall, with particularly poor performance in pollution and traffic commute. It also ranked fourth-worst for climate. New York City followed in second-to-last place, scoring the lowest in property price to income ratio and second-lowest in cost of living and purchasing power. Detroit was ranked third-worst, excelling in negative metrics for safety and pollution.

The index evaluated purchasing power, safety, health care, cost of living, property price to income ratio, traffic commute, pollution, and climate. While Los Angeles and New York City placed in the bottom five for purchasing power, Detroit ranked 26th best. Detroit also had the poorest safety rating, with Los Angeles ranking 29th and New York 37th.

Health care scores saw Los Angeles seventh-worst, Detroit 10th-worst, and New York 13th-worst. Canadian cities dominated the top spots for health care.

In terms of traffic, Los Angeles, Detroit, and New York were ranked worst, fourth-worst, and sixth-worst, respectively. Pollution figures were also high, with Los Angeles worst, Detroit second-worst, and New York sixth-worst.

Conversely, three other U.S. cities—Ottawa, Canada; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Austin, Texas—were among those with the highest quality of life. Spokane, Washington, was also noted for its high ranking.

Three additional U.S. cities appeared in the bottom 10 for quality of life: Miami, Las Vegas, and Phoenix. The remaining four cities in the bottom 10 were located in Canada.