Best PlacesCentre County, PA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Centre 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.
Centre County ranks 176th 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 population health and good schools. The weaker spots are childcare costs, taxes, and state infrastructure.
The best neighborhoods in Centre 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 Centre County
The parts of Centre 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.
Park Forest Village & Port Matilda
Local pay stretches further, more adults hold degrees, and incomes run higher.
State College
Biking is better and streets are more walkable.
Dale Summit & Pleasant Gap
Fewer households have young kids and tree cover is thinner.
Bellefonte & Howard
Crime runs lower and prices have run up less.
Philipsburg
More homes sit empty and it is noisier.
Centre Hall & Spring Mills
Health outcomes score lower and commutes are longer.
Scores across Centre County run from about the 30th to the 100th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Centre County's strengths and weaknesses
Centre County ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Population health is the standout, in the top 1% of counties. Good schools and an educated workforce follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Childcare costs, taxes, and state infrastructure hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Centre County ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of counties
- School gradeA, better than 98% of counties
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than 97% of counties
- Heat safetyBetter than 96% of counties
Where Centre County ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,135 a month, better than only 10% of counties
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 10% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than only 14% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 23% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 26% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Centre County
A household needs to earn about $91,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Centre County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $78,477, 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 Centre County's effective rate of 1.01%, 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 Centre County
Centre County runs younger 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 Centre County.
Who works in Centre County, and how
Work in Centre County centers on education and hospitality & food. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 20%
Life in Centre County
Centre County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and more parkland per resident than 88% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Centre County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Centre County growing, and who is moving in?
Centre County has held roughly flat in population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Philadelphia, PA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Centre County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Centre County, month by month
Centre County sees roughly 83 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 29° | 23° |
| April | 61° | 50° | 41° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Centre County
The nearest airport, State College Regional, is about 1 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 128 miles away.
The best schools in and around Centre County
Schools across Centre County average an A, better than 98% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Ferguson Twp El SchA+ · 95% proficient
- Gray's Woods El SchA+ · 95% proficient
- Radio Park El SchA+ · 95% proficient
Top middle schools
- Park Forest MsA+ · 70% proficient
- Mount Nittany MsA− · 55% proficient
- West Branch MsA− · 55% proficient
Top high schools
- West Branch Area HsA+ · 95% proficient
- State College Area HsA+ · 80% proficient
- Bellefonte Area HsA+ · 80% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Centre County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Centre 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 Centre County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Centre County suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 15% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Centre County
Is Centre County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Centre County ranks 176th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on population health, good schools, and an educated workforce, and lowest on childcare costs and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Centre County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $339,433. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $78,477 median income, cost of living beats 55% of counties.
Is Centre County safe?
Yes, Centre County is safer than 63% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $272 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Centre County?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 36 with lows near 23. That works out to about 83 pleasant days a year, more than 42% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Centre County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Park Forest Village & Port Matilda, State College, and Dale Summit & Pleasant Gap. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Centre County good for families?
Schools beat 98% of counties, crime safety beats 63%, and childcare runs $1,135 a month.
Is Centre County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 55% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 70% of counties. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Centre County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Centre County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Centre 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.
Centre County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Centre County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Centre County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Centre County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Centre County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Centre 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.