Best PlacesCanton, MO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Canton, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Canton ranks 37,649th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Canton
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.
Canton's strengths and weaknesses
Where Canton ranks high
- Cheap childcare$388 a month, better than 99% of towns
- Short commute20.2 minutes each way, better than 87% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 77% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 74% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 73% of towns
Where Canton ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 11% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 18% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 20% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 22% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 25% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Canton
A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Canton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $64,565, 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 Canton's effective rate of 0.68%, 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 Canton
Canton runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Canton.
Who works in Canton, and how
Work in Canton centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Canton
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Canton.
What the weather is like in Canton, month by month
Canton sees roughly 90 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 28° | 21° |
| April | 66° | 53° | 43° |
| July | 87° | 77° | 68° |
| October | 68° | 57° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Canton
The nearest airport, Quincy Regional-Baldwin Field, is about 23 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 115 miles away.
The best schools in and around Canton
Schools across Canton average a C, better than 35% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Running Fox Elem.B · 47% proficient
- Highland Elem.C+ · 37% proficient
- Canton Elem.C− · 28% proficient
Top middle schools
- Clark Co. MiddleD · 22% proficient
Top high schools
- Canton HighC+ · 35% proficient
- Clark Co. HighC · 33% proficient
- Highland Jr.-sr. HighC− · 27% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Canton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Canton 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 Canton against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Canton
Is Canton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Canton ranks 37,649th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, short commutes, and walkability, and lowest on noise and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Canton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $170,270. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $64,565 median income, cost of living beats 37% of towns.
Is Canton safe?
Canton is safer than 18% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $564 per resident a year.
Compare Canton with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Canton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Canton 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.
Canton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Canton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Canton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Canton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Canton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Canton 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.