These Texas cities have the lowest quality of life, study shows
(NEXSTAR) — The state of Texas might be a major draw for relocators based on its economy and friendly tax laws but not everything is great everywhere in the state. Recently, lawn care information and research resource Lawn Starter compared the U.S.' 500 largest cities to determine which areas have the most going for their residents — and Texas did not fare well.
The list's bottom-most entries are almost entirely made up of Texas cities.
To create the list, researchers ranked each city based on a variety of factors, including air/water quality, housing and infrastructure, affordability, safety, family and food security, and more. Each city was given a score out of 100 (with high scores indicating better qualities of life).
Here's what the ranking of the 10 cities with the worst quality of life looks like:
| Rank | City | Overall score |
| 500. | Flint, Michigan | 33.67 |
| 499. | Detroit, Michigan | 34.73 |
| 498. | Pharr, Texas | 36.03 |
| 497. | Pasadena, Texas | 37.57 |
| 496. | Brownsville, Texas | 38.16 |
| 495. | Baytown, Texas | 39.14 |
| 494. | Jackson, Mississippi | 39.45 |
| 493. | Beaumont, Texas | 39.77 |
| 492. | Corpus Christi, Texas | 40.29 |
| 491. | Laredo, Texas | 40.30 |
The Texas city that comes in dead-last in the rankings is the Hidalgo County bordertown of Pharr, which its poorest rankings in the areas of environment (483rd nationally), healthcare access (500th), economic stability (475th), family and food security (496th) and health/wellness access (499th).
The second-lowest-ranked Texas City, Pasadena, earned its lowest scores in air/water quality (499th), environment (479th) and healthcare access (480th).
So there's the bad news, for Texas. But which cities did rank positively?
Meanwhile, Texas' highest-ranked city comes in at no. 59 nationally. Located in Collin County, the north Texas city of Allen received an overall score of 61.92, with its highest rankings being in the areas of being housing/infrastructure (47th), economic stability (37), safety (20th) and education (26th). With an estimated population of 111,551 as of 2022, Allen is a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
The next-highest ranked Texas city is Frisco, which is also located in the DFW area. Frisco, which has a population of 200,509 as of 2020, received an overall score of 61.70, with its highest marks in the areas of housing/infrastructure (26th), healthcare access (20th) and (most impressively), was ranked second nationally for economic stability. Way to go, Frisco!
Curious how Texas' other cities — and all U.S. cities — ranked? Find the full analysis at Lawn Starter.