Best PlacesBowling Green, KY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Bowling Green 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 OPMaster at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Bowling Green ranks 306th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on cell coverage and transit. It does better on affordable childcare, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Bowling Green 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 Bowling Green
The towns and districts of the Bowling Green 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.
Alvaton
Local pay stretches further, fewer homes sit empty, and incomes run higher.
Downtown Bowling Green
It is noisier and fewer households have young kids.
Scottsville
Tree cover is thicker, though streets are more car-dependent.
Smiths Grove & Brownsville
Fewer adults hold degrees and commutes are longer.
Morgantown
Homes cost less and prices have run up less.
Scores across Bowling Green run from about the 3rd to the 87th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Bowling Green's strengths and weaknesses
Bowling Green ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Affordable childcare, a strong job market, and low property taxes carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: cell coverage, transit, and biking all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Bowling Green ranks high
- Cheap childcare$593 a month, better than 94% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 82% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 77% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 67% of metro areas
- Short commute22.1 minutes each way, better than 64% of metro areas
Where Bowling Green ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 17% of metro areas
- School gradeC, better than only 18% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 18% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Bowling Green
A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bowling Green home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $68,679, 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 Bowling Green's effective rate of 0.61%, 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 Bowling Green
Bowling Green runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bowling Green.
Who works in Bowling Green, and how
Work in Bowling Green centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Bowling Green
Bowling Green has less late-night activity than most metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Bowling Green and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Bowling Green growing, and who is moving in?
Bowling Green has grown about 17% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Louisville, KY.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Bowling Green go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Bowling Green, month by month
Bowling Green sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 31. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 38° | 31° |
| April | 72° | 60° | 49° |
| July | 90° | 80° | 72° |
| October | 74° | 62° | 51° |
Flying in and out of Bowling Green
Nashville International sits about 60 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.6 million passengers in 2025, with 158 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Bowling Green
Schools across Bowling Green average a C, better than 18% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Potter Gray ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- Kyrock Elementary SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- W R Mcneill Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Drakes Creek Middle SchoolB+ · 47% proficient
- South Warren Middle SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Bowling Green Junior HighC+ · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- South Warren High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Greenwood High SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Bowling Green High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bowling Green school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bowling Green 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 Bowling Green against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Bowling Green suits
Common questions about living in Bowling Green
Is Bowling Green a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bowling Green ranks 306th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on affordable childcare, a strong job market, and low property taxes, and lowest on cell coverage and transit. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bowling Green expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $233,673. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $68,679 median income, cost of living beats 29% of metro areas.
Is Bowling Green safe?
Bowling Green is safer than 54% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $312 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Bowling Green?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 48 with lows near 31. That works out to about 68 pleasant days a year, more than 19% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Bowling Green?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Alvaton, Downtown Bowling Green, and Scottsville. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Bowling Green good for families?
Schools beat 18% of metro areas, crime safety beats 54%, and childcare runs $593 a month.
Is Bowling Green good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 29% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 41% of metro areas. About 7% of workers already work from home.
Compare Bowling Green with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bowling Green. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bowling Green 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.
Bowling Green detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bowling Green: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bowling Green: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bowling Green: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bowling Green: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bowling Green 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.