Best PlacesBloomington, KS Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Bloomington, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Bloomington ranks 26,405th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.

#26,405
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Bloomington

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Bloomington area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Bloomington's strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%State infrastructure
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Bloomington with other towns.

Where Bloomington ranks high

  • State infrastructureBetter than 95% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than 88% of towns
  • Cell coverageBetter than 86% of towns
  • Health outlookBetter than 86% of towns
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 84% of towns

Where Bloomington ranks low

  • School gradeD+, better than only 13% of towns
  • Air qualityBetter than only 14% of towns
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 16% of towns
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
  • Low property taxBetter than only 20% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Bloomington

A household needs to earn about $71,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bloomington home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $77,423, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$71,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,655
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $257,856 home
Median rent
$1,326
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,315
Property tax$255
Homeowners insurance$86

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 Bloomington's effective rate of 1.19%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Bloomington

Bloomington runs older than the country.

Median age
46
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
19%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1819%
18 to 3419%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6423%
65 and older18%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bloomington.


Who works in Bloomington, and how

Work in Bloomington centers on manufacturing and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
1.1%
below the national average
Job growth
+11.6%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing28%
Education12%
Retail trade11%
Health care & social9%
Construction7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 90%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Bloomington

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Bloomington.


What the weather is like in Bloomington, month by month

Bloomington sees roughly 101 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January45°33°24°
April71°57°46°
July93°80°70°
October73°59°48°

Flying in and out of Bloomington

The nearest airport, Wichita Dwight D Eisenhower Ntl, is about 25 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 168 miles away.

Nearest airport
ICT
Wichita Dwight D Eisenhower Ntl, about 25 miles
Airport size
Small hub
107th-busiest in the US, 49 nonstop destinations
Average drive
36 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Bloomington

Schools across Bloomington average a D+, better than 13% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bloomington school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Bloomington 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 Bloomington against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Bloomington

Is Bloomington a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bloomington ranks 26,405th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, a strong job market, and cell coverage, and lowest on the schools and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Bloomington expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $257,856. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $77,423 median income, cost of living beats 47% of towns.

Is Bloomington safe?

Yes, Bloomington is safer than 72% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $257 per resident a year.


Compare Bloomington with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bloomington. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bloomington 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.

Bloomington detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Bloomington: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Bloomington: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Bloomington: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Bloomington: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Bloomington detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.