People opting to play music aloud rather than through headphones or jacking up the speakers in their car so everyone within a three-mile radius can hear the vile lyrics. Folks with a complete lack of self-awareness while walking down the center of a grocery store aisle. The waitress berated because she brought the salad with the wrong dressing. 

Lawyers are reporting ruder clients. Restaurants are reporting ruder clients. Flight attendants, for whom rude passengers are no novelty, are reporting mayhem with FAA fines for unruly behavior have already exceeded a million dollars this year.

The list of rude behaviors people experience while in public is endless. But did you know the level of rudeness folks display might depend on where they live.

A recent study by the language-learning platform Preply, found that how long someone has lived in an area can influence how others perceive their rudeness. Whether you’ve lived in the city your whole life or just moved there, some neighbors can anticipate your likeliness to be rude. The older a person is, the more likely they are to think transplant residents are ruder than natives in their city. 

Transplant residents are also thought to be ruder by both natives and transplants themselves.

Cultural differences can vary from one part of the country to another, but we also know that sometimes rude behavior is simply rude behavior with no ties to culture.

Asking questions on everything from how often residents witness others committing rude acts, how they perceive native residents versus transplants, and more, Preply created a rudeness score to rank cities from most to least rude.

They found that Miami, Florida is the rudest city in America, followed by Philadelphia and then back to Sunshine State as Tampa was named third rudest city.

That makes sense. For a good portion of the year Miami and Tampa can be hot and sticky, not to mention those terrible storms. Florida is also the fast-growing state with a lot more traffic, transplanted northerners (probably from Philadelphia) and annoying spring breakers. I’m not excusing the people in Miami and Tampa, but you can understand why they might get a bit frustrated and a bit rude.

 As for Philadelphia, nicknamed the “City of Brotherly Love” a place where they pelted Santa Claus with snowballs and refuse to serve you a cheesesteak if you don’t order it correctly, the only real surprise is that it somehow got edged out by Miami.  

Folks living in Omaha, Minneapolis and San Diego turned out to be the least rude. That also makes perfect sense. Omaha is known for its steaks, the birthplace of the Reuben sandwich and Warren Buffett. You have your choice of eating a steak or a Reuben and chat with the affable Warren – there’s no reason to be rude. 

Minneapolis is where Mary Tyler Moore threw up her hat in the middle of the street and no one yelled for her to get out of the way. You live in weather-perfect San Diego, why would you ruin your day by being rude at all. 

Nearly 1 in 4 folks think the residents of their city are the rudest and have considered moving somewhere else due to people’s rude behavior. If you are considering relocating, you should know that Louisville, Charlotte, Austin and Chicago residents have become ruder since 2022.

Look, we’re all a bit stressed these days. My advice in dealing with rudeness is to take a deep breath, try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and respond with kindness and understanding. And, stay out of Philadelphia.  

Barry Lewis is a longtime journalist and author who lives with his wife Bonnie in the Town of Neversink. He can be reached at      barrylewisscdemocrat@gmail.com.