(NEXSTAR) — Southerners are usually thought of as having good manners — but surely there are plenty of southern cities where that isn’t the case, right? Recently, educational tutoring resource Preply set out to find which U.S. cities have the rudest residents and (surprise!) many of them actually are in the southern U.S.
But where do Texas’ cities fall?
First, Preply says it surveyed Americans on a variety of topics, including politeness toward strangers/servers, using phones in public, and more. Cities were given scores on their rudeness based on a 1-10 point system, with 10 being the rudest. This study was a follow-up to the same one on the same topic that Preply published in 2022.
Turns out, for the second time, Houston is Texas’ rudest city.
Although no Texas cities made the top 10 of the rudest cities, Houston did rank at no. 13, with a rudeness score of 8.04 out of 10. Houston previously placed at no. 10, with a score of 5.33.
Here’s how the highest-ranked Texas cities on the list fared.
| Rank | City | Rudeness score |
| 13. | Houston | 8.04 |
| 16. | Austin | 7.97 |
| 18. | Dallas | 7.83 |
| 29. | Fort Worth | 7.44 |
Of all Texas cities included in the ranking, Austin showed the biggest increase in its rudeness score between 2022 and 2024. While Texas’ capital city previously placed at no. 30 (with a rudeness score of 3.91), its 7.97 rudeness score this year indicates an increase of 4.06 points.
Houston has fared better in some other surveys on rude cities, however. A 2022 survey of 2,100 Americans conducted by Business Insider and SurveyMonkey, found Dallas to be the rudest Texas city, placing it at no. 14 nationally.
Among the rude behaviors the Americans said they most commonly witnessed are lack of self-awareness, talking on speakerphone in public, watching videos or listening to music without headphones in a shared space, and lack of care for others.
Despite how rude some people can be, however, 88.43% of Americans surveyed said they typically just ignore rude people, while only 11.49% said they would confront a rude person. Over 50% of people said they’d just leave the area.
All-in-all, the rudest city in the U.S. was found to be Miami, which received a rudeness score of 9.88 — which is much higher than even the no. 2 rudest city, Philadelphia, which earned a rudeness score of 9.12.