Tuesday, January 13, 2026

The Top Ten Most Polluted Cities in the United States

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High pollution rates, you might be surprised…

america's most toxic polluted citiesForbes magazine ranked the major metropolitan areas of America for pollution based on the number of superfund sites in the city, the number of facilities releasing toxic chemicals, pounds of toxic chemicals released in the area, and the air quality ranking.

Forbes ranked America’s largest 40 metro areas for pollution and we want to know- is your city on the list? Why do you think that is? Are you surprised at the Top Ten? Click here to see the full report, showing the full list of city toxicity.

The Top Ten

Ranked from worst pollution to well, less worse:

  1. Atlanta, GA metro area
  2. Detroit, MI metro area
  3. Houston, TX metro area
  4. Chicago, IL metro area
  5. Philadelphia, PA metro area
  6. Cleveland, OH metro area
  7. Los Angeles, CA metro area
  8. Jacksonville, FL metro area
  9. Portland, OR metro area
  10. Dallas/FTW, TX metro area

TIP: use this list as inspiration for a blog post on your own real estate blog and tell your readers why your city is not on the list or if it is, what can be done to make sure it’s not on the list in 2010, or even discuss what a superfund site is and if your city has them.

Lani Rosales, Chief of Staff
Lani Rosales, Chief of Staffhttps://theamericangenius.com/author/lani
Lani is the Chief of Staff at The American Genius, has co-authored a book, co-founded BASHH, Austin Digital Jobs, Remote Digital Jobs, and is a seasoned business writer and editorialist with a penchant for the irreverent.

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