Illinois Place Crowned 1 of the Worst Small Cities to Live In

I look at most best of and worst of lists with much skepticism. Many are just the opinion of one singular writer. This is an exception. A place in Illinois was just crowned as one of America's worst small cities to live in and I don't know anyone who would disagree with that conclusion including the many that live there now.

If you look at WalletHub's new 2025 best small cities in America list, there's one place you won't find anywhere near the top. As a matter of fact, if you want to find this small Illinois city, your scroll finger will get very tired as it's landed nearly at the very bottom.

Is it any real surprise that East St. Louis, Illinois would be in the bottom 2 percentile of small cities to live in list? No surprise at all. As of the latest census, there were barely over 17,000 souls still trying to survive there. It didn't use to be that way though. Prior to the 1960's, you could find great historical theaters in East St. Louis and legendary musicians like Ike and Tina Turner. After the street gangs took over, it's been a plunge in all of the quality of living standards that matter.

There have been many efforts to change the tide in the city to something positive, but nothing has been proven to be effective to this point. It's now not uncommon to see the Illinois State Police conduct stings of violent criminals here and end up with more than 40 felony counts over just a 3-night period.

It's hard to imagine what it will take to turn East St. Louis, Illinois around. What used to be sadly will likely never be again.