‘Dirtiest’ US city has been revealed and it’s surprisingly not New York City

You'd be wrong for thinking the Big Apple was the 'dirtiest' city in all of the United States.

Similarly, you'd likewise be barking up the wrong tree if you thought Los Angeles made it to the top of the rundown too.

The real winner for the filthiest hub in the States, based on 311 sanitation complaints (a special telephone number that provides access to non-emergency municipal services), is far from the one many people would expect.

HouseFresh, a publication focused on indoor air quality, has revealed exactly which metropolitan city takes the cake.

One study has revealed what the 'dirtiest' city in the US is - and the answer may surprise you (kittimages / Getty Images)

Memphis, Tennessee, pulled in fifth place with 17,408 calls to the 311 line per 100,000 residents, while Los Angeles came in fourth with 21,616 complaints.

Up third on the rundown is Charlotte in North Carolina, which saw 31,112 complaints for every 100k people.

Second on the list is Sacramento, California, where 34,186 complaints per 100,000 residents were calling up the 311 line.

City officials, however, gave an reason for this, telling HouseFresh that it encourages all residents to call 311 for any service request, such as a collection services, reporting broken lids, and starting service.

With that said, it's only inevitable for a city of 526,000 is bound to have a few dirty streets here and there.

The number one spot, according to the study, is none other than Baltimore, Maryland.

The city, which boasts a population of 565,000 people, received more than 47,000 complaints per 100,000 residents issued to 311 about cleanliness with 21213 being dubbed by the study authors as 'the dirtiest zip code in Baltimore'.

The dirtiest cities in the US have been revealed (HouseFresh)

Milwaukee was founded to be the cleanest city in America, with only 309 complaints linked to cleanliness conditions for every 100,000 people.

Interestingly, the biggest city in the US, New York City, ranked 17th - beating out the likes of Boston which was sixth, Nashville at 12th and Chicago ranked at 13th 'dirtiest' city.

NYC only saw 3,728 sanitation complaints per 100,000 residents.

Speaking of the Big Apple, it was found that Brooklyn residents were the ones dealing with the most filth in the city with HouseFresh reporting that the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighbourhood is home to the dirtiest zip code.

And as for cleanest zip code?

Well, that was found in the Houston area, with only 19 residents in the 77546 zip code making a complaint.

HouseFresh analysed 12.3 million sanitation-related 311 complaints placed over the last 365 days to reveal the 'dirtiest cities in America'.

"Covering categories related to sanitation issues - such as garbage, waste and recycling - we ranked locations based on the number of sanitation-related reports per 100,000 population," the study authors wrote.

Tyla has contacted Baltimore City Council for a comment.