America's Dirtiest City Is...

NEW YORK, NY — It's not just the subway stations. New York City is the dirtiest metropolis in the United States, with more pests and litter than any place else, according to a review of government data by the cleaning-services company Busy Bee.

The company ranked 40 urban areas across the country based on pest and litter data from the American Housing Survey, air pollution data from the Environmental Protection Agency and population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The Big Apple took the top spot in three of those categories, giving it a highest-in-the-nation score of 427.9 on Busy Bee's "dirtiness index." New York City well outpaced its West Coast rival, Los Angeles, which ranked second overall with a score of 317.8.

Some 904,000 homes in the city have litter on nearby streets or properties, and nearly 2.3 million homes have seen signs of mice, rats or cockroaches in the past year, Busy Bee's review shows. New York also ranks first for population density, with 28,000 people per square mile.

New York has less air pollution than some other large cities. EPA figures show the city's air has a one-hour average concentration of 60 parts per billion of nitrogen dioxide, a harmful chemical that can cause breathing problems. Los Angeles leads the nation in that category, with a one-hour average of 77 parts per billion.

Pittsburgh is the worst city when it comes to particle pollution, which the EPA says can give harmful substances a way in to a person's lungs or bloodstream. The Steel City shows a 24-hour average concentration of 40 micrograms of particles per cubic meter of air, double New York City's average of 20 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

Even if New Yorkers get used to the grime, that doesn't change the fact that the city is still far dirtier than many others. Take Jacksonville, Florida, which was the cleanest city Busy Bee reviewed. Just 44,000 homes there reported litter and 90,000 had evidence of pests, the company's review shows.

Here's Busy Bee's full ranking of America's dirtiest cities with their respective "dirtiness index" score. You can also see them on a map here.

1. New York City, 427.9
2. Los Angeles, 317.8
3. Riverside-San Bernardino, California, 224.89
4. Chicago, 220.9
5. Philadelphia, 212.97
6. Phoenix, 206.93
7. Houston, 203.39
8. Denver, 193.51
9. San Francisco, 189.03
10. Miami, 187.27
11. Pittsburgh, 185.55
12. Washington, D.C., 179.47
13. Atlanta, 178.63
14. Boston, 177.76
15. Baltimore, 176.61
16. Austin, Texas, 175.96
17. Detroit, 171
18. Las Vegas, 163.53
19. Cincinnati, 161.75
20. Dallas, 158.18
21. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, 155.26
22. Cleveland, 148.91
23. Hartford, Connecticut, 148.85
24. Milwaukee, 145.98
25. Seattle, 139.22
26. Nashville, Tennessee 141.88
27. Louisville, Kentucky, 130.38
28. San Antonio, 127.6
29. Kansas City, 127.03
30. Richmond, Virginia, 122.48
31. Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida, 121.78
32. Portland, Oregon, 121.54
33. Rochester, New York, 120.21
34. New Orleans, 117.13
35. Oklahoma City, 116.99
36. Memphis, Tennessee, 110.52
37. Raleigh, North Carolina, 109.35
38. Tucson, Arizona, 108.71
39. Orlando, Florida, 103.43
40. Jacksonville, Florida, 99.52

(Lead image: Trash bags are piled up in New York City in April 2015. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)