Irony: Michigan’s ‘Worst City to Raise a Family’ Has the Most Playgrounds

Instantly, most people would think Flint, Jackson, Saginaw or Monroe would be the worst to raise a family.

The unfortunate "winner" of this title is another city on the tip of most tongues...

The "Worst Michigan City to Raise a Family"

Out of 182 of America's largest cities, Detroit ranks 180th. Only Memphis, TN and Cleveland, OH are worse. Now, if every city in the United States was ranked -- I'm sure the others mentioned above would make this list in some way, too.

Overall, Michigan only has two cities large enough to make the WalletHub's annual ranking. More on that below.

How is the worst city to raise a family determined?

Their methodology includes rankings from 45 different metrics like cost of housing, quality of schools, health care, real estate, recreation, jobs, etc. Those categories are condensed into the following categories for ranking:

• Family Fun
• Health & Safety
• Education & Child Care
• Affordability
• Socioeconomics

The irony is Detroit has more Playgrounds per capita than almost all ranked in this year's list. Only New York, NY, Chicago, Charlotte, NC and Houston outrank us.

Considering we know the other cities that could fit "the worst" to raise a family description, you have to give Detroit credit for so much improvement over the last 10+ years. The city is making significant progress around the arenas/stadiums but lagging in some of the hardest hit neighborhoods since the mass exodus from the city intensified after the Great Recession in 2008/2009.

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Metro Detroit, and pockets of great Neighborhoods around the city are still great areas to live. Although, it's going to take some time to catch up to Michigan's "Best" city to raise a family, Grand Rapids, which landed at number 79 of 182.