Georgia residents searching for a clean, accessible public restroom might want to lower their expectations. A new study places the Peach State near the bottom of national rankings for bathroom access.
🚽 What We Know: TENA ranked all 50 states and 150 cities on public restroom quality and accessibility. Georgia landed in the bottom 10 out of 50 states with a dismal score of 14 points out of 50 possible. The study measured five key factors. How easy bathrooms are to find on map apps. Number of public restrooms per capita. Cleanliness ratings from users. Availability of wheelchair-accessible facilities. How easy accessible bathrooms are to discover online.
📊 The Numbers Tell a Story: Georgia scored particularly poorly in two areas. The state earned just one point out of 10 for restroom density per capita. It also scored only two points for accessibility of wheelchair-friendly facilities. Cleanliness fared slightly better at five points. But that still falls well below average.
🏆 Meanwhile in Paradise: Wyoming topped the rankings with 44 points out of 50. The least populated state apparently knows how to treat its residents and visitors. Montana and Hawaii rounded out the top three. New York managed to crack the top 10 despite having the largest population in the country.
Just so you know, Georgia beat the following states, which somehow have filthier bathrooms than The Peach State: Ohio, West Virginia, Vermont, Mississippi, New Jersey, Alaska, and Oklahoma.
🎯 Why This Matters: Public restroom access affects everyone. Parents with young children know the panic of a bathroom emergency and the horrifying letdown of stepping into a filthy restroom when they finally find one. People with disabilities face even greater challenges navigating inaccessible facilities. Tourists and workers alike depend on clean, available public facilities.
🔍 What’s Next: The complete study includes rankings for individual cities across Georgia. Residents can check how their hometown stacks up against other communities nationwide. The data might provide ammunition for local advocacy efforts.
Before You Dismiss This Article…
We live in a time when information feels overwhelming, but here’s what hasn’t changed: facts exist whether they comfort us or not.
When A&W launched their third-pound burger to compete with McDonald’s Quarter Pounder in the 1980s, it failed spectacularly. Not because it tasted worse, but because customers thought 1/3 was smaller than 1/4. If basic math can trip us up, imagine how easily we can misread complex news.
The press isn’t against you when it reports something you don’t want to hear. Reporters are thermometers, not the fever itself. They’re telling you what verified sources are saying, not taking sides. Good reporting should challenge you — that’s literally the job.
Next time a story makes you angry, pause. Ask yourself: What evidence backs this up? Am I reacting with my brain or my gut? What would actually change my mind? And most importantly, am I assuming bias just because the story doesn’t match what I hoped to hear.
Smart readers choose verified information over their own comfort zone.
B.T. Clark
B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
