Best PlacesAroostook County, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Aroostook County, 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.
Aroostook County ranks 774th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Aroostook County
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 Aroostook County
The parts of Aroostook County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Mapleton
Fewer homes sit empty, more households have young kids, and more adults hold degrees.
Presque Isle, Caribou & Fort Fairfield
Tree cover is thinner and it is noisier.
Madawaska
Scores close to Presque Isle, Caribou & Fort Fairfield, except that prices have run up more here.
Houlton
Scores close to Madawaska, except that health care is harder to reach here.
Fort Kent
Commutes are longer.
Van Buren
Incomes run lower and crime runs higher.
Scores across Aroostook County run from about the 15th to the 89th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Aroostook County's strengths and weaknesses
Where Aroostook County ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 99% of counties
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of counties
- Crime safetyBetter than 89% of counties
- Short commute18.3 minutes each way, better than 87% of counties
Where Aroostook County ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 4% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than only 7% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than only 14% of counties
- Local economyBetter than only 19% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 19% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Aroostook County
A household needs to earn about $40,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Aroostook County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $59,748, 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 Aroostook County's effective rate of 1.09%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Aroostook County
Aroostook County 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 Aroostook County.
Who works in Aroostook County, and how
Work in Aroostook County centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Aroostook County
Aroostook County has more restaurants and bars per resident than 87% of counties and more parkland per resident than 93% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Aroostook County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Aroostook County growing, and who is moving in?
Aroostook County has lost about 4% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Bangor, ME.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Aroostook County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Aroostook County, month by month
Aroostook County sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 27, with lows near 4. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 27° | 16° | 4° |
| April | 51° | 39° | 27° |
| July | 81° | 68° | 55° |
| October | 58° | 47° | 35° |
Flying in and out of Aroostook County
The nearest airport, Presque Isle International, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 332 miles away.
The best schools in and around Aroostook County
Schools across Aroostook County average an A+, better than 99% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Dr Levesque Elementary SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
- Mill Pond SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Mapleton Elementary SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Top middle schools
- Presque Isle Middle SchoolA+ · 89% proficient
- Valley Rivers Middle SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Houlton Junior High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
Top high schools
- Easton Junior-senior High SchA+ · 95% proficient
- Fort Kent Community High SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
- Hodgdon Middle/high SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Aroostook County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Aroostook County 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 Aroostook County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Aroostook County suits
Common questions about living in Aroostook County
Is Aroostook County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Aroostook County ranks 774th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and clean air, and lowest on distance from a big city and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Aroostook County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $148,208. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $59,748 median income, cost of living beats 33% of counties.
Is Aroostook County safe?
Yes, Aroostook County is safer than 89% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $247 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Aroostook County?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 27 with lows near 4. That works out to about 74 pleasant days a year, more than 28% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Aroostook County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Mapleton, Presque Isle, Caribou & Fort Fairfield, and Madawaska. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Aroostook County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Aroostook County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Aroostook County 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.
Aroostook County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Aroostook County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Aroostook County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Aroostook County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Aroostook County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Aroostook County 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.