10 U.S. Cities That Keep Getting Called Unfriendly

Calling an entire city unfriendly is obviously subjective. What feels rude to one traveler might just be the normal pace of life to someone who lives there. Still, some big U.S. cities keep showing up near the wrong end of surveys measuring friendliness, rudeness, and attitudes toward visitors.

For this list, 24/7 Tempo reviewed recent survey data from sources including Clever Real Estate and Preply, along with a 2026 survey that asked residents of World Cup host cities how they feel about tourists. The studies measure slightly different things, so this is not a scientific verdict on millions of people. Think of it instead as a look at 10 cities with reputations that keep resurfacing, sometimes fairly and sometimes not.

Dallas is a good example of why these rankings need some context. It did not make Clever Real Estate's 2026 list of the 10 cities with the rudest residents, but it fared considerably worse in a survey focused specifically on attitudes toward tourists. In May 2026, a survey of residents in World Cup host cities gave Dallas a friendliness score of 48 out of 100, making it the fourth-least friendly host city in the study.

Even that result came with a pretty large contradiction. Dallas residents gave their own city's friendliness a 9 out of 10 in the same World Cup survey. In other words, locals seem to think they are plenty friendly even if their answers about dealing with visitors told a somewhat different story. Dallas has certainly picked up an aloof reputation in some travel discussions, but the evidence is mixed enough that calling the entire city rude would be a stretch.

San Francisco's reputation is all over the map. In Clever Real Estate's 2026 survey, Americans ranked it fifth among U.S. cities with the rudest residents. It also has the kind of fast-moving, densely populated environment where ignoring strangers or skipping small talk can easily come across as unfriendly to visitors.

Then there is the other San Francisco. A May 2026 survey of World Cup host cities ranked it the friendliest host city for tourists, with an 88 out of 100 score. Nearly three-quarters of San Francisco respondents said tourists make their city better. That is about as clear a reminder as you can get that "friendly" depends heavily on what a survey asks and who answers it. San Francisco can apparently be one of America's rudest cities and one of its most welcoming tourist cities at the same time.

Los Angeles has more recent survey evidence behind its reputation. Clever Real Estate ranked L.A. third among cities with the rudest residents in its 2026 survey, behind only New York and Chicago. That does not mean Angelenos are collectively snobs, but the city's image as an impersonal place clearly has some staying power with people outside it.

A second 2026 survey reached a similar conclusion from a different angle. Among World Cup host cities, Los Angeles ranked third from the bottom for friendliness toward tourists with a score of 41 out of 100. Roughly one in nine respondents said they had failed to give directions when approached by a lost visitor. Of course, Los Angeles is enormous, and the experience in one neighborhood can be completely different from another. Still, the unfriendly label did not come out of nowhere.

Las Vegas lives with an unusual relationship between residents and visitors. Tourism is central to the city's economy, but locals also share their roads, restaurants, stores, and public spaces with a constant flow of people who are there specifically to cut loose. That does not automatically make anyone unfriendly, but Las Vegas has appeared near the rude end of national surveys. Preply's 2024 study placed the city among its 10 rudest.

The reputation is not universal. Las Vegas did not appear in Clever Real Estate's 2026 top 10 for rude residents, so there is little justification for declaring the city objectively one of America's least friendly. What visitors may encounter instead is the difference between the Strip, which is built around hospitality and tourism, and the much larger Las Vegas community where people are simply trying to go about their daily lives.

Miami has one of the stronger cases for inclusion here. In Preply's 2024 study of public behavior, Miami finished as the rudest city among the 46 cities surveyed. The study looked at behaviors people witnessed in their communities, including a lack of consideration for others, excessive noise in shared spaces, poor self-awareness, and rudeness toward service workers.

The reputation has survived into newer research. Clever Real Estate's June 2026 survey placed Miami ninth on its list of cities with the rudest residents. That is quite a bit lower than its first-place finish in Preply's earlier study, which again shows how much the methodology matters. Still, when completely different surveys repeatedly put Miami on the list, it is fair to say the city has developed a reputation for being a little less warm than its weather.

Boston does not need bad weather or unhappy residents to explain its place on this list. There is actual survey data. Clever Real Estate ranked Boston fourth among cities with the rudest residents in 2026. An earlier Preply study also found Boston near the top when residents were asked which cities had ruder native-born locals.

Boston fared even worse when researchers focused specifically on tourists. A May 2026 survey of World Cup host cities gave Boston a friendliness score of just 27 out of 100, the lowest of any host city in the study. About one in seven Boston respondents said they had ignored a tourist who approached them for help. Maybe the famous Boston directness really does take some getting used to.

Washington, D.C., regularly appears in these conversations, but there is no need to blame it on lobbyists, security details, or government workers being too important to say hello. Clever Real Estate's 2026 survey simply found that enough Americans perceive Washington residents as rude to put the city 10th nationwide in that category.

That reputation is not necessarily getting worse. Preply's 2024 study found Washington was among the cities that had improved the most since its previous rudeness survey two years earlier. D.C. is also an international city packed with neighborhoods that operate well outside the federal-government bubble most visitors see around downtown. The rushed atmosphere may be real, but reducing the entire city to politicians and power brokers misses most of the people who actually live there.

Philadelphia has been fighting this reputation for years, which is particularly funny for somewhere nicknamed the City of Brotherly Love. Preply ranked Philadelphia as the second-rudest city in its 2024 survey, although that was actually an improvement. Philly had finished first in the company's previous study in 2022.

The label has not completely gone away. Clever's 2026 survey put Philadelphia eighth among cities with the rudest residents. Anyone familiar with Philly knows directness is practically part of the local dialect, and sports can turn that volume up a few more notches. But loud, blunt, and unfriendly are not automatically the same thing. Visitors who appreciate the city's particular style may find Philadelphians considerably warmer than the rankings suggest.

Detroit's reputation has often been wrapped up with old stereotypes about crime, unemployment, and economic decline. Those issues do not tell us whether the person standing next to you is friendly, and there is no good evidence that unemployment somehow makes residents rude to tourists. The survey results are enough on their own: Clever Real Estate ranked Detroit sixth among U.S. cities with the rudest residents in 2026.

There is some evidence that the perception has softened. Preply's 2024 research identified Detroit as one of the cities that improved the most compared with its 2022 rudeness study. Detroit has changed enormously over the past decade, particularly in and around downtown, and the old image of a city permanently trapped in decline is increasingly dated. Its reputation for bluntness remains, but that is a much fairer claim than assuming an entire population is miserable.

If one city has managed to turn a reputation for rudeness into part of its brand, it is New York. Clever Real Estate ranked New York City first for rudest residents in its 2026 survey, the third consecutive year the city took that spot. About 46% of respondents described New Yorkers as rude, comfortably ahead of second-place Chicago at 28%.

Not everyone sees New York the same way. In Clever's 2026 results, 57% of baby boomers picked New York as rude compared with just 26% of millennials. That gap says plenty about how differently people interpret the city's famously brisk social style. New Yorkers may skip the small talk, walk fast, and expect everyone else to keep moving, but plenty of visitors discover that efficiency and hostility are two very different things. Just do everyone a favor and do not stop in the middle of the sidewalk.