10. Pittsburgh, PA
Major Industries: Advanced manufacturing and information technology
Annual Growth Rate: -0.06%*
Back in 1950 “The City of Champions” was the 12th most populous city in America. Since then, the population has been steadily declining year after year. Even with large companies such as PPG Industries headquartered there, American production and manufacturing industries continue to shrink as they have been since the 70s.
Pittsburgh is still known as a big steel-producing city, though steel production has slowed dramatically in the decades since its heyday. Due to this shrinking industry Pittsburgh is experiencing a weakened economy with sky high poverty rates. As scrappy as ever though, the rust-belt city is attempting to reinvent itself, encouraging growth in the tech industry with robotics and artificial intelligence emerging from the ashes.
However, unless attention is paid to parts of the city that aren’t flashy (such as Homewood or McKees Rocks) and tech-savvy, Pittsburgh will likely continue its downward spiral. Which is a real shame, considering Pittsburgh is generally one of the safest cities in America.