Best PlacesCanyon County, ID Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Canyon 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.
Canyon County ranks 459th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on few empty homes and low crime. The weaker spots are an overheated housing market, tree cover, and noise.
The best neighborhoods in Canyon 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 Canyon County
The parts of Canyon 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.
Star
It is quieter, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Nampa
Fewer households have young kids.
Middleton
Prices have run up more.
Caldwell
Advertised internet is faster.
Parma & Wilder
Homes cost less, though fewer adults hold degrees.
Canyon County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 12% of the country and others in the top 5%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Canyon County's strengths and weaknesses
Canyon County ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Few empty homes is the standout, in the top 1% of counties. Low crime and cell coverage follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. An overheated housing market, tree cover, and noise hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Canyon County ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 99% of counties
- Crime safetyBetter than 98% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of counties
- Local economyBetter than 97% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than 97% of counties
Where Canyon County ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of counties
- Tree shadeBetter than only 12% of counties
- QuietBetter than only 22% of counties
- Air qualityBetter than only 24% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 25% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Canyon County
A household needs to earn about $101,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Canyon County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $79,626, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Canyon County's effective rate of 0.51%, 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 Canyon County
Canyon County runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Canyon County.
Who works in Canyon County, and how
Work in Canyon County centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Canyon County
Canyon County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Canyon County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Canyon County growing, and who is moving in?
Canyon County has grown about 32% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Boise, ID metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Canyon County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Canyon County, month by month
Canyon County sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 96 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 67° | 51° | 36° |
| July | 96° | 78° | 58° |
| October | 68° | 51° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Canyon County
Boise Air Trml/Gowen Field sits about 20 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.6 million passengers in 2025, with 59 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Canyon County
Schools across Canyon County average a C+, better than 44% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Legacy Charter SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Silver Trail Elementary SchoolA− · 61% proficient
- West Canyon Elementary SchoolA− · 59% proficient
Top middle schools
- Eagle Middle SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Middleton Middle SchoolB+ · 49% proficient
- Meridian Middle SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
Top high schools
- Marsing High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
- Eagle High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
- Vallivue AcademyB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Canyon County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Canyon 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 Canyon County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Canyon County suits
Families
Schools land around the 44th percentile and crime safety beats 98%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 13% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Canyon County
Is Canyon County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Canyon County ranks 459th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on few empty homes, low crime, and cell coverage, and lowest on an overheated housing market and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Canyon County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $402,762. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $79,626 median income, cost of living beats 62% of counties.
Is Canyon County safe?
Yes, Canyon County is safer than 98% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $225 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Canyon County?
July highs average about 96 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 23. That works out to about 92 pleasant days a year, more than 54% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Canyon County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Star, Nampa, and Middleton. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Canyon County good for families?
Schools beat 44% of counties, crime safety beats 98%, and childcare runs $741 a month.
Is Canyon County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 62% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 83% of counties. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Canyon County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Canyon County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Canyon 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.
Canyon County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Canyon County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Canyon County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Canyon County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Canyon County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Canyon 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.