Sexually Transmitted Diseases By State: Montgomery, Alabama, Is Nation's STD Capital

Montgomery, Alabama, is the most sexually diseased city in America, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data compiled by the website Rent Application and published Wednesday. The top 10 cities were ranked, with Montgomery topping the list at 1,899.20 STDs per 100,000 people and St. Louis coming in a close second, with 1867.54 per 100,000.

The website created a map showing the number of sexually transmitted diseases per 100,000 people with a color key ranging from yellow to bright red for the highest rates. The post noted that it only used information for cities with "sizable populations," though it did not detail what constituted "sizable." The CDC does not take data on herpes, so the diseases included in these numbers were syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia.

The data showed a high incidence of STDs in states in the Southwest, as well as cities with large military bases. Killeen, Texas (Fort Hood), Fayetteville, North Carolina (Fort Bragg), and Norfolk, Virginia (Norfolk Naval Base), were all in the top 10.

People aged 15-24 account for almost half of the 20 million new cases of sexually-transmitted diseases every year, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health. The data in this map did not take age into account, and the median age of residents in Montgomery, for instance, is 35 years old, City-Data reported.

Alabama's high rate of STDs has been well documented for the past few years. An article published on AL.com in June 2014 reported that Alabama's rate of STDs was almost three times the national average.

"It continues to feed from one generation to the next," Lawrence Robey, a health officer from Alabama's Madison County, said.