We’ve collected a list of what people in America consider to be the rudest cities. There are a couple of surprises on this list, but there are also a couple of names on this list that won’t surprise anybody. Read on and find out if you live in one of these exceptionally rude places.
New York City, New York
It should come as no surprise to anybody reading this list that "New York, New York" is on it. It also probably won’t come as much of a surprise to find out that NYC has been ranked as the rudest city in the entire country.
According to historians, New Yorkers have been considered rude since the 1700s – maybe it’s just something about the air. One of the problems is that people are so smashed together, it’s bound to happen. There’s also the fact that so many tourists are there, and that can just end up being annoying to people that live there.
Los Angeles, California
Though New York is seen as the rudest by far, the “New York of the west,” Los Angeles, is biting at its heels. Is it because it’s so hot? Is it because of the traffic? Is it because of the poor city and statewide policies? We don’t know, because we don’t live there.
Apparently, it can be so tough in this city that some schools have problems hiring crossing guards – not just because of drivers that have to wait for the kids, but because of the parents of the children going to school! People who live in Los Angeles have intense jobs a lot of the time, so maybe it’s just stress.
Riverside, California
This city in California still seems to get quite a bit higher on the rudeness charts than a lot of people expect. One of the bigger issues seems to be parking. A councilman for the city, Mike Soubirous, told the press that he’s received a number of complaints from residents with houses.
Their street space is being taken up by people who live in the nearby apartment blocks, which have little or no parking. Here’s what the Councilman suggests: First, talk to the people that are doing it and ask them to keep the space clear. After that, the suggestion was to park in the spot yourself so that people can’t block you in.
Dallas, Texas
Maybe it’s the heat, maybe it’s the culture, and maybe it’s their football team not doing much in the past few decades, but Dallas, Texas can be plenty rude. However, some people have decided to do something about it. One person in particular, a rapper who hasn’t even hit double digits yet, released a song called “Bully Proof” on YouTube.
His name is Michael Smith, and he goes by “Lil’ Money Mike.” He wants his song to help people stop being so darn mean. Who knows if this song will make a big change, but it’s nice to see kids doing something for their community.
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Some people called the hometown of the University of Michigan “notably hip and intelligent,” but that certainly doesn’t mean they can’t be rude. In fact, it seems like people that have that kind of data attached to them will be a little ruder, on average.
And that seems to hold up when you know that Ann Arbor was ranked as the tenth rudest city in America in a 2016 poll. Michigan seems like a place that has lots of rude people, and we all know that cities are where they tend to collect. Or, maybe, it’s just that people, in general, are rude, and a city has a lot of them, so they always feel ruder than smaller places or the wilderness.
Austin, Texas
People who have lived in Austin want to keep Austin weird, but it seems like weird and rude can go hand-in-hand depending on who you ask. Austin was ranked as the sixteenth-rudest city in America, and a lot of that rudeness seems to happen on the road.
A company that is based in Austin recently released a three-minute video that uses footage from dashboard cameras to show how often the drivers of this city will act in unfriendly manners. The video was a montage of recklessness, and it showed off cars turning straight into traffic, cutting off other drivers, cruising straight through busy intersections, and even some bad crashes.
Laurel, Nebraska
How many people will you find in the town of Laurel, Nebraska? The number doesn’t even get up to four figures: 968 by the last count. How could such a small, humble farming community become a place that is known as being rude? There isn’t a whole lot of small-town charm to be found here.
If you happen to visit this town, you might find that the locals are isolated and aloof, not used to tourists, and too busy to do any welcoming. Unless you have family in the area, you’re a big fan of big fans (windmills) or you really, really like corn, this town doesn’t have a whole lot to draw people in.
Chicago, Illinois
Many people believe Chicago to be one of the ruder cities in the union. A 1985 editorial in the Chicago Tribune said that the city’s rudeness was “chronic, thoughtless, and utterly pervasive.” The bigger cities of the nation tend to have the most rudeness – there’s probably a good explanation for that. The more people, the higher chance of getting rude people? Something like that.
Chicago is home to the famous Ed Debevic’s Diner, which has rudeness as one of its selling points. It’s famous for its rude staff, and people will go there just to see the staff be rude to themselves and the other patrons. Humans are weird sometimes.
Wilmington, Delaware
Now, what’s this city? If you aren’t from the area, you might not be familiar with Wilmington. It has about seventy thousand people, set on the Christina and Delaware rivers, and it has quite a bit of history to it, dating back to the seventeenth century. It’s also full of a whole lot of rude people.
The number of reviews that document rude behavior at restaurants and other places of business is large and they’re easy to find after a cursory search. There are also entire threads on the website Reddit about the rudeness that the people of Delaware, and especially the people of Wilmington, seem to exhibit when it comes to tourists.
Cincinnati, Ohio
Just how rude is Cincinnati, Ohio, you might ask? Well, Cincinnati’s federal appeals court upheld that a rude gesture is protected by the right to free speech. We aren’t all that surprised that it happened in Cincinnati. A woman was pulled over for a second time for flashing a rude gesture at a police officer.
She argued that being pulled over a second time was a violation of her rights, and the courts agreed. While she might not have been following the golden rule, she didn’t do anything that she wasn’t allowed to do – at least, for the second time she was pulled over.
Atlanta, Georgia
It has what might be the biggest and busiest airport in the entire world, but it’s also up there on the scale of rude people. This city is both on the east coast and part of the South, so it has a weird mixture of emotions that can come out in certain ways.
Like when a man got mad at State Rep Erica Thomas because she had too many items to check out in the express lane. Some reports say that the man, whose name was Erik Sparkes, told Thomas to “go back” to where she came from. Sparkes denies this, though he does say that he was being rude by swearing at her and calling her lazy.
Kansas City, Missouri
Even when the people of Kansas City, Missouri are being rude, they manage to do it in a quiet and respectful way. When the Paseo Baptist Church in Kansas City was going to be renamed in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, a number of people filed in to protect the name change.
They silently entered and silently stood there, presenting perhaps one of the strangest protests that this city in Missouri has ever seen. These silent protesters wanted the name to be changed back to what it had been originally, while those actually attending the church wanted it to remain with the new name. Yes, even a protest in Missouri somehow manages to be respectful.
Cleveland, Ohio
Ohio is a strange place in general, and Cleveland is an even stranger place. Their sports teams are feast or famine, and they’ve become the butt of a bunch of internet jokes for that and other reasons. There’s even a story about a guy getting banned from a Cleveland Browns game...despite the fact that he didn’t attend.
Someone threw a beer while inside the stadium, and he was incorrectly identified as Eric Smith, who happened to be DJing at a wedding. When Smith tried to prove his innocence, he was called a liar. Eventually, the people responsible for the ban realized they had made a mistake and rescinded the ban, but Smith started a defamation lawsuit against the team.
Detroit, Michigan
How rude is Detroit? Well, a McDonald’s employee was almost tasered over an incident. After ordering her meal, a woman fired a taser at an employee for a couple of reasons. One, she thought that her order was taking too long. She also, somewhat ironically, thought that the staff was being rude to her.
She was in a wheelchair, so maybe she saw something that other people didn’t. The staff member that was hit (and was thankfully not hurt) said that she was being polite, but it’s not like we have the video available. Maybe they’re just upset that none of their sports teams can ever do well. Having to deal with Canada being that close also might not help.
Berlin, New Hampshire
If you look at an image of Berlin, New Hampshire from above, it looks like a beautiful, welcoming New England city. And yes, that’s exactly what it looks like, but there are a bunch of reasons why this city might be the unfriendliest in the entire state.
First off, one of its main features is a federal prison. There are plenty of towns and cities that have federal prisons, but it still tells you a little bit about how this town might feel. There’s also the high rate of unemployment and generally low salaries, which don’t do the good cheer of the town any favors.
Richmond, Virginia
Here’s a fact you might not know – it’s illegal to swear in public while you’re in Richmond. It’s been a law on the books since 1860, and if you let loose a curse in public you could be slapped with a fine of two hundred and fifty dollars. That’s a hefty chunk of change just for a bit of tongue-wagging.
Delegate Michael Webert tried to change the law in 2017, saying that while cursing isn’t necessarily a good thing, it doesn’t deserve a fine of $250. Maybe, like...twenty dollars. Or maybe we should just go back to the old days of sticking a bar of soap into a dirty mouth. That seems like it would work better, almost.
Providence, Rhode Island
The smallest state in the union might not have a lot going for it compared to some of its neighbors, but it still boasts a city that landed at number forty-eight on the rudest cities list from “Business Insider.” Providence doesn’t have a great deal of rudeness, but a former Rhode Island Senator, Stephen Alves, said something quite rude while on camera.
After being filmed non-stop for some time, and after asking the woman who was filming him to stop, Alves said “If a pig grunts, you don’t grunt back.” Some say this was a rude comment about women, but he said he had been confronted numerous times by the same woman.
Clinton, Iowa
It’s neither the biggest nor the smallest town on this list, but the town of Clinton in Iowa still is one of this Midwestern state’s rudest places to visit. It has about twenty-five thousand local inhabitants, which means it’s far beyond the scope of small-town charm.
It’s also not big enough to have a ton of attractions like museums or theaters, meaning it’s kind of caught in city limbo. It’s likely you haven’t even been to Clinton, and even if you have there isn’t a whole lot to keep you around. It’s not like the people of the town are friendly and welcoming, according to the rest of the state.
St. Petersburg, Florida
It seems like the good people of St. Petersburg need to work on their welcoming manners a little bit. People who have traveled to this city in the great state of Florida reported that it felt like the city was really missing something.
They wanted more out of both the city and its people, and it doesn’t seem like they were getting it. Being right there on the water must make people a little cranky, even though it doesn’t sound like it would be that bad. However, a lot of people also say that the city is quite laid back, and at least the place has some nice weather.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
If a city is called rude, then it’s almost always the people that live there that are the cause. Not so when it comes to the steel capital of the world, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It turns out that it might be the people that visit that are to blame for this city being on the list since tourists have a bad habit of leaving some not-so-nice reviews on Pittsburgh landmarks.
These reviews often mention words like “boring” and “ugly.” Not only that, but the people that live in Pittsburgh are referred to as “miserable people.” Maybe the people who live there need to lighten up a little, or maybe the people who visit need to keep their feelings inside a bit more.
Dillon, South Carolina
With a surplus of crime and road rage, Dillon becomes a mighty rude place for people that are just trying to get through their day. It’s the area that has some of the most crime in the entire state, and it’s one of the smaller cities on this list – just barely over six thousand people, making it the ninetieth most populated city in the state.
However, it’s between much bigger cities, which means there’s a lot of traffic – commuters, tourists, and eighteen-wheelers that will absolutely dominate the highways. It’s possible that the rudeness comes from all the people that are driving through the city, and not the city itself.
San Diego, California
It’s got stretches of beautiful beaches, some sports teams, and lots of fun things for vacationers to do, but it also has something else which is not as fun. The rudeness of this most southern California city is so bad that in 2016, local guy Stuart Cardwell wrote an opinion piece for the “San Diego Reader."
It was titled simply: “Y’all Are Rude.” What is to blame for such unfriendly feelings in such a sunny city? Well, one professor had a couple of things to pick from. It could have been the gold rush, and it could have been the Dust Bowl migration.
Rupert, Idaho
It seems perfectly possible that Idaho, most famous for its potatoes, doesn’t have a rude person in the entire state, but it seems that one of the towns here has earned itself quite the reputation when it comes to rudeness.
Rupert is a small town with a mere six thousand people on the southern side of the state, and it turns out it’s the rudest place in the state. How could such a small place be so rude? Is there a big tourist boom? Well, the reason might be that it’s the kind of place a lot of retirees like to relocate to – there’s a lot of hiking, hunting, and fishing opportunities around the area.
Freedom, Wyoming
With a mere two hundred and six people as of the 2020 census, the unincorporated community of Freedom, Wyoming, could very well be the rudest place in this list, or in the entire United States. It’s been described as threateningly rude, and we have a possible explanation. This place is so small that it doesn’t have anything to do unless you like to work, and who likes that?
Pretty much nobody. There’s also the fact that it’s so close to Yellowstone that this place probably sees thousands of visitors every single day, and they’re just plum sick of them all. Driving with their big cars and their cameras and whatnot. And it’s not like anybody is actually going to stop in Freedom since there’s nothing there.
Memphis, Tennessee
It might be the home of Elvis Presley, B.B. King, and Johnny Cash, as well as lots of other musical greats, but it seems like this city has a whole lot of rudeness, if the people are to be believed. Just because it’s the home of Graceland doesn’t mean everybody is all that graceful.
In 2017, a nail salon in the city hung a sign saying that people who were overweight would have to pay fifty percent more for a pedicure, bumping the cost from $30 to about $45. The increase, the sign said, was due to the hard-to-distinguish thing known as “Service fees.” When the media came calling, the owner said he didn’t think it was such a bad idea.
Jacksonville, Florida
Apparently, this Florida city can make people so rude that a non-profit organization called The American Civility Association has been working in Jacksonville for more than five years. The aim of the organization is to reduce the amount of bullying that goes on.
The founder, Amy Barnett, wants to make a difference in day-to-day lives. She’s said that people don’t wake up thinking of who we can be rude to, and that people for the most part want to be kind. Still, the fact that an organization had to pop up in this city, in particular, tells us a lot about how many rude people there might be.
Raleigh, North Carolina
It sounds like Raleigh can still be plenty rude when it wants to be. For instance, a woman wandered into a Bonefish Grill, sat down to have some...bonefish, we guess...and got annoyed at a group of black women that were sitting near her.
We think you can piece together what happened next. Well, while she was “being rude,” someone else was taking a video of her, and that clip went viral. Obviously, the woman was saying some rude things, but we’d like to point out that a bunch of women being really obnoxious in a public place is also rude, just not on the same level.
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is Kentucky’s largest city, and it’s also the rudest city in the state if these numbers are anything to go by. From the Kentucky Derby to the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, there are some really fun things to see here, but you might have to watch out for the rude people, too.
Louisville television reporter Sara Rivest got a kiss on the cheek against her will while taping a live segment, which seems less rude and more criminal. Indeed, the man responsible for such an uncouth act was charged with harassment. A little girl friendly with the reporter said that he had stolen her “first kiss,” which is, in fact, rude.
Buffalo, New York
Not only is the state of New York home to the famously unfriendly New York City, but it has another that is pretty high on the list as well: Buffalo. Public speakers are regularly shouted down, tourists and vacationers are given the cold shoulder, and it’s not like the fans of the local Bills are known for their welcoming attitudes.
It’s important to remember that not everyone is going to be mean, but Buffalo seems to only show up in the national news when something pretty bad happens. The weather is also “rude” if you want to call it that, with incredible amounts of precipitation and snowfall on a yearly basis. Are they upset at the older brother showing them up?
Birmingham, Alabama
The south of the United States can be a strange place to many, but one thing they try to do is have some sort of civility. Still, Birmingham is a rude city according to a bunch of people, even if it doesn’t even get close to a lot of the other cities on this list.
Even so, rudeness and a casual Southern nature can go hand-in-hand, like when a mother found out that her children had been obnoxious during a movie. A woman tried to shush them, but they ignored her. The mom of the children posted an apology to Facebook, hoping to connect with the woman, and it ended up working.
Sacramento, California
As one Marcus Breton opined in the “Sacramento Bee,” there are a lot of ways to tell if someone is from Sacramento, and none of them are about politeness. In the capitol of California, everything is political, and there’s no way you’re going to agree with anyone a hundred percent.
You’ll argue about food, bike lanes, public art, and everything else that the city has. California can’t hold its water like a hyper Irish Setter, and when an inevitable drought rolls around, people are all too willing to rat out their neighbors to the government for watering their lawns when they aren’t supposed to.
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford doesn’t leap off the page as an especially rude city, but it seems that people who want to see a play performed on the stage need to take some lessons on how to be a good theater-goer. Ushers have been told to be polite but firm when asking people to not disrupt shows with their phones.
They’ve been asked to be “generous and inclusive” when asking people to get off their phones. Shame those people. Shame them! If they’re more interested in what the little people on their phones have to say than the performers on stage, then they shouldn’t have bought a ticket.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
While there are probably a whole lot of people in the almost seven hundred thousand residents of Oklahoma City, sometimes that’s for a good reason. It was the fire department that got called rude at one point, with the dispatcher handling emergencies taking the brunt of the ire.
On the other hand, Fire Department Public Information Officer Benny Fulkerson, who was a dispatcher for fourteen years, said that a quick, curt, and rude tone is sometimes necessary to make sure that the dispatchers get all the information they need to get people the required help. Most people won’t mind if the person who picks up after dialing 911 is quick with the words.
San Francisco, California
There are lots of groups that have the opportunity and the desire to be rude when it comes to living in San Francisco, but there’s one group in particular that seems to be the rudest, and it’s definitely not what you would expect. It’s those fiends on two wheels, the cyclists. Not people who ride motorcycles, no.
Those on bicycles. That you pedal. Apparently, they hurtle down streets at speeds that go past the speed limit, they blaze past children and pets, they yell at people who are driving slowly, and one person even likened them to an invading army. Not the kind of people we’d expect to be the rude ones, but here we are.
Seattle, Washington
Sure, it’s plenty weird, but is Seattle really a very rude place? It seems to be an accepting and loving place, but that doesn’t mean the people who live here can still cop a rude ‘tude or two. In April 2019, a video was taken of a bunch of Seattle city council members on their phones as an old man presented something to them.
Quite rude, if we may say so ourselves. Even ruder, however, was the public response to such rudeness – vulgar emails aimed at the city council members, condemning their behavior. It was a whole lot of rudeness, even if the city council members deserved to be called out.
Corinth, Mississippi
Maybe it’s because this Mississippi town lies against the state line with Tennessee, but it doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot going on inside of Corinth. It’s been shrinking in recent years, the economy isn’t booming, and there is a pretty small amount of culture to take in if you’re visiting.
Perhaps that’s why it tends toward the rude side of things – there’s just nothing to do. There have to be a few things, but kids these days don’t want to go to the same museum every weekend, even if it is the Crossroads Museum, which has history from the civil war, famous athletes from the area, and hopefully some other stuff.
Denver, Colorado
The problem for many of the people who live in Denver, Colorado seems to be the caliber of person that is moving there in order to take advantage of the freedom that the state offers. The chill spots like concerts and coffee shops suddenly started getting taken over by people who just didn’t understand that rudeness isn’t part of the Denver way.
On the other hand, maybe it’s a lot more rude than the chill people think it is. The city was listed as the forty-fourth rudest city on “Business Insider,” which isn’t too bad, but it looks like this place could get better yet.
Tampa, Florida
It’s a big metropolis and a regular vacation destination for a lot of people due to its proximity to Disney World, but there’s also the powerful Florida heat and humidity to make things worse while you’re in Tampa. For instance, Tampa resident Jenn Bethune has a service dog due to post-traumatic stress disorder.
When she visited the famous aforementioned theme park, people constantly berated her for having a service dog even when she didn’t appear to need one. This despite many disabilities being “invisible,” as the term is. Trying to berate a lady because of her service dog that she has to have for her PTSD is pretty darn rude, if we may say so ourselves.
Columbus, Ohio
There are quite a number of cities from Ohio on this list for some reason, but at least Columbus isn’t too high up on the list. It was ranked as the thirty-first rudest in the city in “Business Insider.” That’s not too bad in the grand scheme of things, but it could still be a lot better.
One specific event, quite rude indeed, was when Columbus contractor Jeffrey Whitman called fellow local Charles Lovett a certain racial epithet after the two got into a disagreement on the road. Whitman ended up following Lovett all the way home, where Lovett started recording the conversation. Lovett told Whitman that his behavior was unacceptable.
Charlotte, North Carolina
The capital of North Carolina might not be the rudest, but it seems that the local Smoothie Kings hires some people that need to go back to sensitivity training. Not one but TWO rude words were written on receipts that customers were handed after they ordered. The first, Calvin Caldwell, said it was “very rude” to see the expletive, which we feel might be underselling it a little bit.
The second instance involved a man named Tony Choi, who saw that someone had written “Jackie Chan” on his receipt. While that’s usually a compliment, it still turns out to be pretty rude. Smoothie King reps said that those responsible have been fired, and all employees will undergo sensitivity training.
Topeka, Kansas
You’d think that a city that is full of domed neoclassical buildings and museums full of fun locomotives and other sights would be a bit more friendly. But apparently, Topeka, the capital of Kansas, is that state's rudest city. The one hundred and twenty-five thousand people (approximately) that live in the city might not be outwardly rude.
But it has the second-highest crime rate in the state, which probably keeps people from feeling very friendly. By the way, it has that crime rate despite being the fifth most-populated city in the state, with Wichita, the most populated, being more than three times larger. Why is Topeka the one that ends up being the rudest?
Las Vegas, Nevada
It’s odd to see that this glamorous city could end up on a list of the rudest cities, and so high at that – it’s number thirteen from a “Business Insider” poll. Most people just pop in for a weekend or a week, gamble, see some shows, drive to the dam, and enjoy themselves.
The people who actually live there must be miserable since it’s just party people one week after the other. Nothing ever calms down, and you have to go about your job as bachelor parties and “business trips” have fun around you. And a lot of people work in the service industry, too, so there’s that factor as well.
Miami, Florida
While Miami isn’t too rude in general, there are a few places where that rudeness really comes out in spades. It’s when they gather as an audience for plays, films, or concerts. The thought is that because it’s so hot and humid that it’s hard for people to go, go, go – especially to things that have a specific start time like a play.
Punctuality seems to be optional, and that can come off as rude. If you treat a movie theater like a bar, coming and going when you please without worrying about people who might actually be trying to watch the movie, you’re going to get some glares.
Cut Bank, Montana
While you could say that crime is rude, the city of Cut Bank seems less rude and more of just...dangerous. It has one of the highest crime rates in the entire state (and it’s a pretty big state), and it also has quite a bit of poverty and low levels of education.
We know for a fact that highly-educated people can be rude, but a place that has low levels of schooling also gives off a rude atmosphere. Could we hazard a guess that people, in general, are rude, and it doesn’t matter how much schooling you’ve had? At best, it just changes HOW you are rude.
Virginia Beach, Virginia
Virginia seems like a laid-back and genteel place most of the time, but if you ever happen to step inside one of their courtrooms, you might be a little surprised. One of the lawyers practicing in Virginia Beach was punished for being rude on multiple occasions during 2015. The lawyer in question, John Crandley, referred to the cases against him as “cr*p,” which is a good start.
Another lawyer said that he was calling things “nonsense” and “baloney” while in court, which could very well be synonyms for words with harsher meanings. Crandley was jailed TWICE for courtroom behavior that was described as sarcastic and rude and was disciplined without jail time a third time.
Indianapolis, Indiana
While it might not be able to go up against titans of rudeness like Los Angeles or New York, Indianapolis still has a problem with a very rude thing: litter. It got so bad, that back in 2019 a sign was erected that attracted plenty of attention. The sign said “We love litter,” a lot of people called to have it taken down.
Just to be clear, it wasn’t the litter that got people mad, it was the sign trying to get people to realize how much they are littering. Some of the locals figured that people would care more about WHY the sign was put up than the sign itself, but that was their mistake.
Martinsburg, West Virginia
If you’re driving through West Virginia and come across Martinsburg, you might think that you've found the perfect place. The scenery around the town is amazing, the architecture is a delightful splash of color, and there are plenty of classic buildings from around the time of the country’s founding to explore. Of course, then you’ll meet the people.
There are a whole lot of unfriendly – some even say downright hostile – people living in Martinsburg. It’s the eighth-biggest city in West Virginia, which doesn’t exactly boast big cities from the get-go, so how could this little burg, with not even twenty thousand people, become a place that is known for its rudeness?
Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota
These two twin cities are right across the river from each other, and even people who live in Minnesota usually just refer to them as “The Twin Cities.” Minnesota Nice only goes so far, and it wears out its welcome once you get into the city limits of either of these metropolises.
The rudeness probably comes from the fact that they were laid out by a blind monkey. One-way streets going all over the place, parking in weird spots, and a rat’s nest of highways and interstates that would take a genius to untangle, which means the Minnesota Department of Transportation is one hundred percent out of luck.
Newport, Rhode Island
Despite being the smallest state in the nation, Rhode Island manages to have more than one city land on this list. This coastal town has plenty of wonderful bed-and-breakfasts as well as some amazing mansions to view, but people live in those mansions. A lot of the time, they don’t want people staring at their houses.
Even if you’re visiting from another rich city, it can be pretty crowded, and the locals don’t like people coming in from out of town to dirty the place. It’s a really nice place to visit as long as you aren’t near other people, is what we’ve discovered, but the people are one of the big parts of any place.
Colorado Springs, Colorado
While a lot of the people who live in Colorado Springs might take umbrage, this city took ninth in a list of the top ten rudest cities from 2016. But...why? As with so many things that have to do with manners and rudeness, it’s pretty hard to figure out why this one got ranked so high.
There are apparently a group of people that are sick of all the people relocating to Colorado, and Colorado Springs in particular, saying things like “Colorado is full” or other charming phrases. Of course, for many, the rude people aren’t bad enough to make the wonderful sights of the area anything less than totally worth it.
St. Louis, Missouri
The Midwest doesn’t have a whole lot of spots on this list compared to areas like the coasts or the south, but there are still a couple of names that will pop up, like the biggest city in Missouri. In the city, the retail chain Nordstrom had to apologize to a trio of teens who said that they were racially profiled by employees at one of its stores.
They called the police on the teens, but the police found that the kids hadn’t done anything wrong. Quite rude, all things considered. Still, one of the teens knew that this could be a learning opportunity, saying that it was a teaching moment and that people should move forward and get better.
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
It seems like there are a whole lot of cities from Florida on this list, and we’re trying to figure out why that might be. Is it simply because there are a lot of them? Is it because there are so many tourists to the Sunshine State that the people who live there just get sick of them?
It’s supposed to be a sunny place, Florida, and all that sunlight will mean a lot of Vitamin D – Vitamin D, as we all know, improves your mood. So why all the grumps? Maybe it’s the heat. Maybe it’s the humidity. Maybe it’s both of them together. But we’re just guessing.
New Haven, Connecticut
It’s the home of Yale University, and it made it to seventh place on the list of rudest or unfriendliest places in the United States that appeared in the travel magazine “Conde Nast Traveler.” It has a whole lot of, and this is a quote from the magazine, rude and unfriendly people.
Maybe it’s the presence of such a prestigious Ivy League school that makes people rude – maybe they just kind of think they’re better than all the other people around them. Maybe the people who aren’t part of that university are really darn sick of those people who are from the university. Maybe it’s a little bit of both.
Atlantic City, New Jersey
Atlantic City is a Las Vegas for when you can’t get all the way to Nevada. And, just like Las Vegas, it turns out that there are quite a lot of rude people who make up this city on the eastern seaboard. It was ranked the second unfriendliest city in a “Travel and Leisure” poll of the entire world (number one in this poll was Moscow).
It seems like it’s the right place to go if you’re a fan of gambling, but it’s the wrong place to go if you want friendly, laid-back people. Nowadays, after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, it’s taken another hit, meaning the only thing that might be left is the rude, unhappy people.
El Paso, Texas
First, the good parts. El Paso has a ton of cool museums, it has some great gardens that display southern flora, and it’s also a common stop for Broadway groups that are on tour. Now for the bad parts. El Paso is apparently one of the rudest cities in the WORLD, beaten out by only a single location that isn’t even in the United States (For the curious, it’s Manchester, United Kingdom).
This was discovered by looking at the number of rude words that people who checked in on Foursquare used. Admittedly, it isn’t the most scientific way of doing things, but measuring the rudeness of a city feels like it’s one of the more difficult things to actually determine.
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona doesn’t seem all that rude unless you’re someone with a lawn and there are people with dogs around. One resident of this Southwestern city got so fed up with dogs doing their dirty work on his lawn (along with the dog’s owner not picking it up) that he took a video of the dog and owner duo and posted it online.
Owners have to pick up after their dogs, or it’s just...well, it’s simply rude. Other dog owners who saw the video agreed that it was the right thing to do, and they hoped that it embarrassed the owner who was doing his due diligence.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Despite scoring a lot of points in Scrabble, Philly is one of the rudest cities in the United States. This comes off as pretty ironic, seeing as how the name of the city literally means “City of brotherly love.” There’s no love lost when it comes to this metropolis.
The intense fandom of the Eagles is a big part of this rudeness, and they’ve done quite a lot of unfriendly things. This includes throwing snowballs at Santa in 1968, cheering about a career-ending neck injury in 1999, a drunk fan punching a police horse, and one game in 1997 that racked up more than sixty separate fistfights. And that’s just the sports fans!
Baltimore, Maryland
Street performers can be rude a lot of the time, but one man in Baltimore took things up a notch. He ran around with a camera, shoving it into people’s faces and making disparaging comments about them, including about their appearance and race.
He said his goal was to get a reaction out of people, but all he really got was five counts of harassment and sixteen counts of trespassing. Baltimore also has the “advantage” of being joined at the hip with one of the rudest cities in the states, Washington, D.C., which means the two areas will have some similar ideas about how best to get things done (meaning rudely).
Morrisville, Vermont
It’s hard to be grumpy while looking at the amazing vistas that Vermont has to offer, but that doesn’t stop the good people of Morrisville. This isn’t a city, and it’s not even a town. It’s actually classified as a village, and it has only twenty-two hundred people.
It ranks pretty low in a lot of the quality of life measurements that are taken into account, like crime, unemployment, and income. In these cases, lower is worse. The people who live here might just not love their lot in life, and we can’t blame them. Surely they get something from the amazing hills and mountains that Vermont is known for?
Salt Lake City, Utah
Sports are important for a lot of people, but if you’re in a theater watching a musical, maybe put your phone away for a little bit. This is why actor Joseph Morales tweeted about the rudeness of the people of Salt Lake City.
It was intermission during a show of the world-famous “Hamilton,” and Morales was frustrated with the number of people that he could see on their phones. One person actually responded with “deal with it.” The Utah Jazz, the local NBA team, was competing in the playoffs at the time, which explains why so many people had their eyes on their phones.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
People really don’t care about driving properly in this city, and there’s quite a lot of crime, but it turns out that not all criminals are rude. Early in 2019, a burglar – you know, a person who breaks into a place and steals stuff from that place –
He was called polite because he removed his shoes, locked up after he was done stealing, and even closed the garage door...while also making off with a car and thousands of dollars worth of electronics. Well, a city that is most famous for its beer is going to have its number of strange people, but at least he wasn’t doing something like calling someone a mean word.
Portland, Oregon
There’s a show about how weird Portland is, even if the show is scripted. There’s a reason “Portlandia” is set in Portland. While weird is one thing, it’s not all that bad – the problem is, Portland seems to have a rude problem, too.
Editor Robert Ham of the Portland Mercury said that one of the big issues is baristas and bartenders in the city. Ham hoped that the people in the service industry could manage a modicum of manners – or, at the very least, get a facial expression that looks a little less murderous and a little more pleasant. Maybe it’s all the weird.
Bloomington, Indiana
On a list of cities worldwide, listing the percentage of curse words used in check-in recommendations on Foursquare, guess which comparatively small city in Indiana was ranked as number FOUR? That’s right, it’s Bloomington, which boasts a total of about eighty thousand people in all.
It beat out places in Texas, California, New York, and Florida, and we don’t exactly have a very good explanation as to how it could have done so. Maybe there are a couple of people that really like to travel but are also extremely foul-mouthed. Maybe the WonderLab science museum that the city holds is a lot more annoying than most other science museums.
Orlando, Florida
It seems that things can get pretty bad in Orlando if you’re doing certain things, like leaving negative reviews for restaurants. Apparently, that can get your house shot at if you live in Orlando. A woman named Monica Walley went on social media to complain about a restaurant that not only denied service to her disabled mother but was “unnecessarily rude” in the process.
Michael Johnson, the son of the restaurant’s owner, found this to be quite a rude thing indeed, so he drove to Walley’s house and shot at it three times. Johnson was arrested ten days after the event. Walley had begun a campaign against the restaurant, but the shooting is a level above.
San Antonio, Texas
When you think about San Antonio, you probably remember the Alamo, but you should also make sure to keep an eye out for the rude people, too. No matter where you go you can find some people that just can’t wait to say or do something mean.
For instance, a couple became annoyed at a San Antonio Spurs game when the fans in front of them would jump to their feet every time the hometown team scored. And this is basketball, so that was, like, every fifteen seconds. The couple responded with racist and homophobic comments, which were caught on camera, prompting an apology from the couple in question.
Boston, Massachusetts
Here is a big, rude city on the east coast. It is one of the original metropolises in America and home to a whole lot of history. While standard street rudeness is one thing, this city has an odd reputation for being full of line-cutters.
The good people of Boston will do something called a chat and cut, where they pretend to know somebody who is waiting in line and slip in next to that person, to the annoyance of all the people behind. We’ve even heard that people are doing it in groups, which feels like it would be enough to start a riot in some places.
San Jose, California
There are a lot of cities in California, which means one of them has to be the least rude, right? Right. Well, it probably isn’t San Jose, even if it’s nowhere near as rude as some of the bigger metropolis areas. There’s a filmed event of a gas station employee yelling at Grecya Moran and her son for speaking Spanish to the other cashier in the gas station.
When Moran began filming the incident, the employee got more and more upset, swearing and shouting, and demanding that Moran speak English. The employee also told Moran that she wasn’t an American citizen, even though Moran is. The employee had to be fired after the incident.
Waianae, Hawaii
It seems odd to have any city in Hawaii on this list since the entire state has tourism as a main source of income – and thus try hard to be as welcoming as possible. Still, this city was fingered as the rudest on the island chain for one simple reason: the crime rate is the highest.
Theft is quite rude when you get right down to it. Of course, theft is going to occur in any place where a whole lot of people congregate – it’s human nature. It’s up to us to try and fight against that human nature, but it can be difficult if not impossible to do so if you don’t have a strong moral base.
Anchorage, Alaska
Alaska doesn’t seem like a very rude place in general unless you’re talking about the polar bears, which can be pretty mean when they are trying to eat you. However, it turns out that Anchorage landed at number sixteen on the “Travel + Leisure” list of rudest cities in America in 2012.
Anchorage is home to a little under three hundred thousand people, so it’s not a small city by any means, but it doesn’t seem like it would be that rude of a place. So what’s the issue? Well, it’s possible that the quietness that a lot of the locals have can come off as rudeness to people who are visiting.
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Cheyenne is the capital of Wyoming, and it’s also the largest city in the state, coming in at a whopping sixty-four thousand. Look out, New York, there’s a challenger approaching. Is it a rude place? Well, it might be rude for a lot of people traveling through it, but there’s a bit of a caveat.
Wyoming is a big, mostly untamed place. It’s dangerous for anyone, and those who live there are hardy. When some city slicker rolls up and tries to talk to them, they might just turn around and walk away. It’s a beautiful city, but a lot of the people there would rather just have their space and their peace.
Newark, New Jersey
The next-door neighbor to Newark, New York City, gets all the press when it comes to rudeness, but Newark is no slouch. In fact, according to a ranking that was published in “Conde Nast Traveler” magazine, it has the number one spot in the entire world when it comes to rudeness, not just the United States.
One quote said that really the only thing that Newark has going for it is the fact that it’s a big airport near the most famous city in the world. There are literally no other reasons for you to make a stop here, according to the writer. Are the people there simply that unpleasant? It’s hard for us to say.
Washington, D.C.
Despite being the capital of the nation, a recent survey found that almost twenty percent of recipients found Washington to be one of the rudest cities in the nation. The reasons for these things could be many: the east coast tends to trend a little ruder for some reason.
Maybe it’s all the tourists that are constantly clogging up the streets. Maybe the fact that so many people work in politics. Members of the presidential staff have been heckled and shouted at. Even people that live there will find each other rude, but many understand it’s just how the town works. Amazing they manage to get anything done there.
Houston, Texas
The bigger the city, the more rude people there are, and we all know that everything is bigger in Texas. Houston has plenty of stories of rude people, but one vicious cycle is this: a high-style and manicured Houston neighborhood had to erect signs banning photo shoots: “Welcome to Broadacres; NO photo shoots.”
The reason for this was that people would bring props like furniture, sometimes even using cars in the pictures, which can easily tear up lawns. While some agreed with the ban, other members of the community found the ban itself to be rude. Add stories like that one in with all the crazy drivers, the oppressive heat, and people in general, and you have a city that can be plenty rude.
New Orleans, Louisiana
It’s one of the most famous party cities in the entire nation, but that doesn’t mean New Orleans is all fun and games. It turns out the place where Mardi Gras is held can be downright rude if the timing is right. Recently, State Representative Neil Abramson got into a spat with the filming crew of “NCIS: New Orleans."
He did it because the people working to shoot the show did things like yell at a kid, set up really loud generators without warning anybody beforehand, and damaged trees with their equipment. Abramson called for the rules about production planning to be changed in the name of convenience and respect.
Rapid City, South Dakota
By all accounts, Rapid City is a very beautiful place to live. If you want to get to the incredible Mount Rushmore, then you have to pass through Rapid City. It’s also just east of the Black Hills National Forest, but the people who live inside it really seem to drag this place down.
Common complaints include problems like the preponderance of crime, the lack of medical or educational services, and aggressive drivers. That last one is what makes this place seem so rude – these people have places to be! SOMEBODY has to watch “Wheel of Fortune,” and it might as well be them!
Nashville, Tennessee
It’s got plenty of music and plenty of booze, but what Nashville also seems to have is rude people. It should come as no surprise that the people who are the rudest are spammers. They’ve been sending cold texts to people – people who own homes, mostly – and asking them if they’d be willing to sell their properties.
Some people reported getting up to five of these texts a day. One woman said that the texts had been asking about her father’s house, and if he’d be interested in selling. This is despite the woman’s father having been dead for two years at the time. The woman was reported as saying “Thanks for the reminder.”
Fort Worth, Texas
The thing about Fort Worth, Texas, is that the people who live there seem perfectly all right. You know, maybe they could be a little nicer, but as a whole, there isn’t much of an issue. It’s the people who stop into this little (population: approximately nine hundred and thirty-five thousand) city that are the issue.
The rudest behaviors as rated in a survey were being absorbed by your phone in public, not letting people merge in traffic, not slowing down near pedestrians, being noisy in public, and not acknowledging strangers. It’s fair to say that all of these behaviors and the remainder of the list can be seen in almost any city, but Forth Worth might get a little more of them.
Little Rock, Arkansas
According to some of our sources, Arkansas has a high number of rude people, but of course, the capital of the state is going to have the most of them. Arkansas is a state caught in flux – many would say that they’re part of the South, while plenty of others would say they’re part of the Midwest.
Some believe them to be whatever Texas is — the Middle South or whatever it’s called. We can’t assume for certain that this is why people in the state can be so rude, but it’s a thought. Do capital cities always have the highest concentration of people? Certainly not – New York and Los Angeles are two examples.
Minot, North Dakota
The people of North Dakota are generally a friendly lot, but even this cheerful state has a bad side of the tracks. The name of that city is Minot, and it’s the fourth-biggest city in the state by population. There are plenty of attractions here, including the Minot Air Force Base and the Dakota Territory Air Museum.
There’s also a Scandinavian Heritage Park with a traditional Scandinavian wooden church – a sight to behold. There are also lots of stories of rude people, including unfriendly neighbors, strangers that are a little too suspicious, and a lack of human decency to be found that happened in this town if you know where to look – but isn’t any city the same way?
Auburn, Maine
To many, Maine is the idyllic example of New England beauty. Even the bigger cities are small compared to the rest of the nation, there are amazing forests to explore, and there’s great seafood to enjoy. But this state holds a dark secret, and it isn’t just all the Stephen King books.
The town of Auburn, located about fifty miles north of Portland, is apparently the rudest place in the state. This city has one of the higher crime rates in the city, and it isn’t flush with things for tourists to do, which means the best option for you if you’re visiting is to go hiking or take a trip to the ocean.