Best PlacesBenton County, IA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Benton County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Benton County ranks 291st of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Benton 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 Benton County
The parts of Benton 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.
Urbana
Shellsburg
Vinton
Belle Plaine
It is noisier and fewer households have young kids.
Scores across Benton County run from about the 47th to the 90th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Benton County's strengths and weaknesses
Where Benton County ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 98% of counties
- Crime safetyBetter than 94% of counties
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than 93% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than 91% of counties
Where Benton County ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 12% of counties
- Low property taxBetter than only 16% of counties
- Tree shadeBetter than only 22% of counties
- QuietBetter than only 25% of counties
- Air qualityBetter than only 26% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Benton County
A household needs to earn about $62,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Benton County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $88,543, 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 Benton County's effective rate of 1.27%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Benton County
Benton County runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Benton County.
Who works in Benton County, and how
Work in Benton County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Benton County
Benton County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Benton County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Benton County growing, and who is moving in?
Benton County has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Cedar Rapids, IA metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Benton County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Benton County, month by month
Benton County sees roughly 94 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 23° | 16° |
| April | 63° | 50° | 40° |
| July | 87° | 75° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Benton County
The nearest airport, The Eastern Iowa, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 204 miles away.
The best schools in and around Benton County
Schools across Benton County average an A, better than 98% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- La Porte City Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Tilford Elementary SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Shellsburg Elementary SchoolA · 72% proficient
Top middle schools
- Vinton-shellsburg Middle SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
- Center Point-urbana Middle SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Union Middle SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
Top high schools
- Vinton-shellsburg High SchoolA · 77% proficient
- Center Point-urbana High SchoolA · 75% proficient
- Independence Junior Senior High SchoolA · 73% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Benton County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Benton 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 Benton County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Benton County suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 89% of counties and 12% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 56% of counties and health care access beats 94%.
Common questions about living in Benton County
Is Benton County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Benton County ranks 291st of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on good schools, low crime, and health care access, and lowest on internet speeds and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Benton County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $222,167. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $88,543 median income, cost of living beats 89% of counties.
Is Benton County safe?
Yes, Benton County is safer than 94% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $207 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Benton County?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 31 with lows near 16. That works out to about 94 pleasant days a year, more than 56% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Benton County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Urbana, Shellsburg, and Vinton. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Benton County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Benton County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Benton 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.
Benton County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Benton County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Benton County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Benton County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Benton County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Benton 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.