Best PlacesBolivar, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bolivar, 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.
Bolivar ranks 4,395th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bolivar
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.
Bolivar's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bolivar ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 96% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 92% of towns
Where Bolivar ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 19% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 20% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 68 pleasant days a year, better than only 21% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 22% of towns
- Cheap childcare$959 a month, better than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bolivar
A household needs to earn about $66,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bolivar home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $81,511, 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 Bolivar's effective rate of 1.15%, 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 Bolivar
Bolivar 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 Bolivar.
Who works in Bolivar, and how
Work in Bolivar 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 86%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Bolivar
Bolivar has more restaurants and bars per resident than 84% of towns and more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Bolivar and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bolivar, month by month
Bolivar sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 30° | 22° |
| April | 66° | 52° | 39° |
| July | 87° | 74° | 63° |
| October | 70° | 56° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Bolivar
The nearest airport, Akron-Canton Regional, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cleveland-Hopkins International, about 58 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bolivar
Schools across Bolivar average an A−, better than 89% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sandy Valley Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Tuscarawas Valley IntermediateA · 68% proficient
- Strasburg-franklin Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Tuscarawas Valley Middle SchoolA+ · 72% proficient
- Sandy Valley Middle SchoolA · 64% proficient
- Fairless Middle SchoolA · 59% proficient
Top high schools
- Tuscarawas Valley High SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Fairless High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Sandy Valley High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bolivar school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bolivar 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 Bolivar against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bolivar
Is Bolivar a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bolivar ranks 4,395th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, low disaster risk, and few empty homes, and lowest on noise and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bolivar expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $240,489. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $81,511 median income, cost of living beats 77% of towns.
Is Bolivar safe?
Yes, Bolivar is safer than 94% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $147 per resident a year.
Compare Bolivar with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bolivar. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bolivar 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.
Bolivar detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bolivar: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bolivar: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bolivar: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bolivar: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bolivar 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.
- 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.