howdy it's Kyle with the video counting down the 10 worst state capitals in the US previously I posted a video ranking the 50 state capitals which are the buildings but this video is talking about the actuals capital cities themselves so the beauty of the Capitol building plays no factor at all in this video and this is a topic that I want to discuss because in several of my videos I've talked about many cities that have undergone a major economic boom in the past decade or so that are state capitals and these are also often home to a major university so we're talking like Raleigh North Carolina or Nashville Tennessee Austin Texas Columbus Ohio or bigger cities like Denver or Atlanta but the picture isn't entirely rosy in all of the state capitals in this video I ranked a 10 worst ones at number 10 is Providence Rhode Island that's a population of about a hundred and eighty-five thousand but has had about the same population for the past 50 years it has both a lower household and a per capita income than the state of Rhode Island's averages and that's not comma normally you expect state capitals to have higher wages and higher income than the rest of the state but for nine of the 10 on this list including Providence that's just not the case household income was $48,000 per year which is pretty low especially for the Northeast and the per capita income is 28,000 per year which is also very low and that leads to approximately 22% of the population of Providence living in poverty one interesting note about the demographics of Providence is that it's 43% Hispanic mostly Puerto Rican but that's much higher than you might expect and the current mayor is the son of Guatemalan immigrants if I would have done this list about ten years ago Providence probably would have been in the top five so it has improved a little bit but it is still one of the rougher state capitals in the country at number 9 is Springfield Illinois has a population of about 120,000 and is growing pretty slowly and just like almost all the other cities on this list it has both lower household and per capita income than the state average it has a household income of $55,000 per year and it per capita income of 35,000 which are both pretty low it has a pretty serious issue with poverty with 23% of the population they're living under the poverty line the city has pretty high crime rate but it is just average for murders so usually when the crime rate is really high but the murder rate is average or that means our probably isn't a major gang problem there but there is a lot of poverty that leads to a lot of property crimes the overall state of Illinois is losing population and that's a pretty strong theme throughout this video in that if a state is losing population there are fewer government services needed and the state capital is gonna feel the brunt of that negative impact at number 8 is Lansing Michigan has it properly is approximately 115,000 and there's been a slight population decline for about 50 years it's household income was 41 thousand dollars in per capita income as twenty four thousand which are both lower than the michigan average has a very high poverty rate of 26 percent it also has an above average crime rate but it isn't horrifyingly bad but Lansing does buck the trend a little bit and that just east of it is East Lansing that's the home of Michigan State University so again most these capitals I have a major university either in the city or right nearby it's had to be doing better off but Lansing really isn't getting that benefit of having both the capital and the university there but the overall city of Lansing does have above average educational attainment amongst the citizens but overall the city is still pretty rough at number 7 is Charleston West Virginia it has a pretty small population for a state capital at forty five thousand but the population is going down it's lost twelve percent of the population since the 2000 census the city had about 75,000 people at the 1970 census so that's always been a fairly small state capital but has been going down a population quite a bit and Charleston is the only city on this list it has a higher household and per capita income than the state average with West Virginia being just about the poorest state in the country Charleston's $44,000 household income and $35,000 per capita income are higher than the state the poverty rate is about 20% which for this list is actually pretty good in terms of crime and has a just above average murder rate but it has very high property crimes and assaults and this is a reflection on the huge drug problem in Charleston and West Virginia in general you hear about the phrase opioid epidemic well West Virginia is pretty much ground zero for that it's also a very unhealthy City one of the most obese cities in the country very high smoking rate as well and West Virginia generally considered the least healthy state in the country and you can see that in Charleston at number six is Montgomery Alabama it has a population of about two thousand and it's generally been growing a little bit for the past 50 years but the population has been pretty steady since 2015 Alabama is one of the poorest states in the country in Montgomery is poorer than the state average household income was 43 thousand dollars per year and the per capita income is twenty-five thousand dollars and has a twenty four percent poverty rate so as with a lot of other cities with a high poverty rate is also a very high crime rate in both violent crimes and property crimes and Alabama is kind of the Rust Belt of the south there was a lot of iron and steel and manufacturing type stuff going on in the state but just like you had AB North in places like Pennsylvania and Ohio there was a big decrease in those jobs and the state took a big hit overall and with Montgomery being the capital of the state it took a major hit at number five is Baton Rouge Louisiana as a population of about 225,000 people and this is another one where it's a lower household and per capita income than the state with $42,000 household income and $27,000 per capita income so Louisiana again is a pretty poor state but Baton Rouge is even poorer than that there's a 27 percent poverty rate in the city and it has a very high crime rate in both violent and property crimes but one of the most surprising stats that only 33 percent of the city has a college degree which is crazy for a city with a major university most major college towns especially ones that are also state capitals are gonna have more than one third of the population with a college degree but not in Baton Rouge reminds me of a line from an old Randy Newman song college men from LSU when in dumb came out dumb - so Baton Rouge - the city that most bucks that trend of cities which are both state capitals and major college towns seeing an economic boom because Baton Rouge just isn't seeing it at number four is Harrisburg Pennsylvania it has a population of about 50,000 people and there's been a population decline for 50 years it's household income of $42,000 and per capita income of $25,000 or both lowers and the pennsylvania state averages a whopping 32% of the people to live in Harrisburg live under the poverty line and shockingly only 79 percent of the city are high school graduates and all those factors lead to an absurdly high crime rate an incredibly high murder rate assault robberies any kind of crime you can think of it was extremely high in Harrisburg which is a shame because a state capitol building their rights what are the most beautiful ones in the country it's uh for the city in which it's located is pretty rough at number three is Jackson Mississippi there's a population of about a hundred and sixty thousand people and there's been a ten percent decrease in population since 2000 Mississippi is a single poorest state in the entire country and yet Jackson still has a lower household income and per capita income and the state averages with household income being only forty thousand dollars per year and per capita income being only twenty-two thousand dollars per year which leads to a poverty rate at about twenty four percent which actually is kind of low considering the other stats but as you would expect with a city with a lot of poverty you have a very high crime rate although not as bad as Harrisburg and a pretty odd stats is that only 1% of the population in Jackson are foreign-born immigrants you'll be hard-pressed to find another city in the US with a population over a hundred thousand people that has only one percent that are foreign-born immigrants and that's a pretty good indicator that there really isn't much economic and job growth in the city which is pretty reflective of Mississippi in general because not just Jackson but the entire state is losing population at number two is Hartford Connecticut has a population of about a hundred and twenty-five thousand and there's been a general population decline for the past 50 years it has a significantly lower income than the Connecticut state average is because Connecticut as a state is one of the wealthiest states in the country in Harford is extremely poor the household income was $35,000 per year which is less than half of the Connecticut State average and the per capita income is twenty thousand dollars a year thirty one percent of the population there is living under the poverty line and as you might expect has a very high crime rate in terms of both violent and property crimes so in general Connecticut is a state that people usually associate with good things good schools good health care got the most beautiful State Capitol building in the country but the capitol city itself Hartford is one of the roughest in the country and at number one the single worst state capitol in the entire country is Trenton New Jersey there's a population of about 80,000 people and there's been a population decline for the past 50 years and some of these stats about Trenton are just staggering the household income is $32,000 which is less than half of the Jerzy state average and the per capita income was $20,000 per year the poverty rate is about 30% and increasing and a shockingly low 72 percent of the population there are high school graduates and this one's mind-blowing the average home value in Trenton is 98 thousand dollars New Jersey from the most expensive states in the country for housing but you can get one for under a hundred thousand in Trenton but interestingly enough the murder rate is only kind of average so you would expect a much higher violent crime rate in the city but other type crimes property crimes burglaries and robberies are very high so with all the major problems going on in Trenton and the fact that they're getting worse Trenton is definitely the worst state capitol in the country so that's my ranking of the ten worst state capitals in the US and the categories I use to make this determination they're pretty arbitrary but I think most would agree that poverty and income and population decline and high crime rates are pretty good indicators of what makes the city bad I hope you enjoyed this video if you did please give me a thumbs up to let me know you approve and consider subscribing to this channel if you're interested in hearing more about us geography travel cross-country roadtrip and just a lot of other stuff about us geography from a nerdy perspective but yeah thanks for watching geography king signing out you
