Announcing the dirtiest cities in the world, the top include Paris and Rome

Travel company Radical Storage has just announced a list of The dirtiest cities in the world , including one destination that is consistently among the top global favorites. The rate of dirt and pollution in these urban areas is recorded to be increasing rapidly, raising many concerns about the experience of tourists as well as the quality of life of local residents.

According to a report by Radical Storage, Budapest (Hungary) tops the list of the dirtiest cities in the world. The company analyzed Google reviews of the top 10 attractions in the 100 cities in Euromonitor's Top 100 Destinations Index. A total of 70,000 English-language reviews from the past 12 months were examined, focusing on keywords such as “clean” or “dirty” to determine hygiene levels.

The results showed that more than 37.9% of sanitation-related reviews in Budapest described the city as dirty or poorly maintained. Radical Storage said this is because Budapest’s waste management system is struggling to keep up with the surge in tourists. In September alone, tourism to Hungary grew 8.3%, with Budapest up 12% compared to the same month in 2024.

A wall covered in graffiti and discarded blankets in Budapest, Hungary.

Italy has four cities in the top 10 dirtiest, namely Rome, Florence, Milan and Verona, making the country a prime example of how “nice shoes can get dirty easily” when faced with tourism pressure, old infrastructure and persistent waste.

Rome ranked last in terms of cleanliness, with 35.7% of reviews mentioning dirt. Reddit has many posts complaining about the garbage situation in Rome. One Irish tourist shared: “I'm coming to Rome for the third time in 20 years. From what I've seen, it's always dirty. Rome is a really beautiful city, but the garbage problem is absolutely disgusting."

Images of garbage piled up on the streets, even attracting herds of wild boars looking for food, are clear evidence of the persistent pollution in the Italian capital.

Not only Rome, Italy also has Florence in the top group of the list. Paris, the world's most famous tourist destination, also appeared, reflecting the challenges that large cities face between tourism pressure and urban environmental management.

Rome is a really beautiful city, but very polluted.

In the US, Las Vegas ranked third. The city known as the “City of Sin” recorded a negative rating of 31% for cleanliness. Radical Storage explained that this is because Las Vegas is always crowded with tourists, operating 24/7, making it a big challenge to keep the streets clean.

“With the huge tourist influx and the non-stop nightlife, keeping the streets clean is inevitable,” The city has also launched a “Pick It Up Las Vegas” initiative to clean up storm drains, tunnels, parks and streets, the report said. However, negative feedback has spread on social media.

One TripAdvisor reviewer described Las Vegas as “a dangerous dump” with “feces and urine everywhere, marijuana smoking in every building and every street,” and homeless people regularly harassing tourists for money.

Las Vegas becomes the third dirtiest destination in the world.

In addition to Las Vegas, the US has another representative, New York, in 12th place, continuing to reinforce its not-so-happy reputation for rats and garbage. New York has even been suggested a new nickname: “The city never cleans up.”

To ensure reliable results, Radical Storage excluded locations with fewer than 100 reviews, and filtered out potentially confounding responses like “not clean” or “not dirty.” Only English-language reviews were included in the analysis to reduce language bias.

Based on the proportion of negative reviews related to dirtiness, each city is given a corresponding cleanliness score. This data contributes to sketching an overview of the urban sanitation situation in major tourist destinations around the world.

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