10 Worst Small Towns in Michigan Ranked — Does Yours Make the List?

If you live in or come from a small town in Michigan, you either love it or hate it — there is no in-between.

Some small towns in Michigan are cute and quaint; others seem to have seen their better days.

READ MORE: Study Says These 10 Small Michigan Cities Are Among Worst in America

RoadSnacks.net prides itself on saying "the stuff about where you live that no one else has the guts to say." The website recently revealed its list of the 10 worst small towns in Michigan, and all we can say is... "ouch."

RoadSnacks' selections weren't arbitrary. They looked at a few different factors in trying to determine the worst small towns in Michigan.

How RoadSnacks Ranked These Towns

First off, let's define "small town". For RoadSnacks' purposes, they considered any place in Michigan with a population of between 1,000 and 5,000 people. That's over 250 towns in the Mitten State.

Key Factors: What Makes a Town “Worst”

They considered towns with low population densities to be less desirable. They looked at unemployment rates. If housing costs were low, they blamed that on low demand. They looked at income levels, each town's percentage of high school dropouts, and crime rates.

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According to RoadSnacks, the small Michigan town where unemployment is the worst is Lakeview, in Montcalm County. More than 1 out of every 5 people there are jobless, according to their figures. The average annual income in Lakeview (around $30,000) is also lower than almost anywhere else in the state. But those factors weren't enough to make Lakeview the worst small town in Michigan — it ranks #5 on the RoadSnacks list.

See the Full 10 Worst Small Towns

Check out RoadSnacks' 10 worst small cities in Michigan below and see if you agree.