Best PlacesAkron, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Akron metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Akron ranks 126th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on property taxes and childcare costs. It does better on cheap car insurance, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Akron metro
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Akron
The towns and districts of the Akron metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Northfield, Richfield & Montrose-Ghent
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Twinsburg & Macedonia
Crime runs lower and schools score higher.
Kent, Stow & Ravenna
It is quieter, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Tallmadge & Rootstown
More residents vote, though fewer households have young kids.
Downtown Akron
Biking is better and advertised internet is faster.
Mogadore, Atwater & Lakemore
Fewer homes sit empty, though streets are more car-dependent.
Barberton, New Franklin & Norton
Homes cost less, though health outcomes score lower.
Green
Health care is harder to reach.
Cuyahoga Falls
Tree cover is thinner and prices have run up more.
Akron shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Akron's strengths and weaknesses
Akron lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cheap car insurance, transit, and good schools carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Property taxes, childcare costs, and a weak job market hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Akron to another than it does between Akron and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Akron ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 94% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 89% of metro areas
- School gradeB+, better than 88% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 77% of metro areas
Where Akron ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,273 a month, better than only 17% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 23% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 25% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 29% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Akron
A household needs to earn about $66,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Akron home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $83,331, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Akron's effective rate of 1.44%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Akron
Akron runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Akron.
Who works in Akron, and how
Work in Akron centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Akron
Akron has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more parkland per resident than 88% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Akron and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Akron growing, and who is moving in?
Akron has held roughly flat in population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Cleveland, OH.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Akron go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Akron, month by month
Akron sees roughly 104 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 30° | 22° |
| April | 65° | 52° | 40° |
| July | 88° | 76° | 64° |
| October | 69° | 57° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Akron
The nearest airport, Akron-Canton Regional, is about 12 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cleveland-Hopkins International, about 29 miles away.
The best schools in and around Akron
Schools across Akron average a B+, better than 88% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- East Woods Intermediate SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Bath Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Sharon Elementary SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hudson Middle SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- Harmon Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Lee Eaton Intermediate SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
Top high schools
- Revere High SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- Highland High SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Aurora High SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Akron school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Akron measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Akron against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Akron suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 70% of metro areas and 15% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 62% of metro areas and health care access beats 73%.
Common questions about living in Akron
Is Akron a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Akron ranks 126th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, transit, and good schools, and lowest on property taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Akron expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $232,726. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $83,331 median income, cost of living beats 70% of metro areas.
Is Akron safe?
Akron is safer than 29% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $371 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Akron?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 39 with lows near 22. That works out to about 104 pleasant days a year, more than 62% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Akron?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Northfield, Richfield & Montrose-Ghent, Twinsburg & Macedonia, and Kent, Stow & Ravenna. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Akron good for families?
Schools beat 88% of metro areas, crime safety beats 29%, and childcare runs $1,273 a month.
Is Akron good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 70% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 45% of metro areas. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Akron with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Akron. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Akron represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Akron detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Akron: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Akron: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Akron: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Akron: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Akron detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.