Best PlacesColumbus, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Columbus metro, 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.
Photo by Tysto, via commons
Columbus ranks 60th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on what local pay buys and low disaster risk. The weaker spots are the weather, childcare costs, and property taxes.
The best neighborhoods in the Columbus 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 Columbus
The towns and districts of the Columbus 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.
Dublin, Delaware & Powell
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Westerville & Lewis Center
Schools score higher, though it is noisier.
Newark, New Albany & Johnstown
Biking is worse and transit reaches fewer jobs.
Hilliard, Upper Arlington & Galloway
Scores close to Newark, New Albany & Johnstown, except that tree cover is thinner here.
Reynoldsburg, Black Lick & Pataskala
Crime runs lower and more households have young kids.
Grove City
Streets are more car-dependent.
Lancaster, Pickerington & Canal Winchester
Homes cost less, though commutes are longer.
Downtown Columbus
Fewer residents vote and health care is harder to reach.
Circleville, Groveport & Ashville
Health outcomes score lower.
Columbus shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 3% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Columbus' strengths and weaknesses
Columbus ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. What local pay buys, low disaster risk, and cheap car insurance carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. The weather, childcare costs, and property taxes hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Columbus ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 90% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 90% of metro areas
- School gradeB, better than 82% of metro areas
- Household income$95,572 median, better than 82% of metro areas
Where Columbus ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 64 pleasant days a year, better than only 12% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,215 a month, better than only 19% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 21% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 32% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 32% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Columbus
A household needs to earn about $90,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Columbus home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $95,572, 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 Columbus' effective rate of 1.35%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Columbus
Columbus runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Columbus.
Who works in Columbus, and how
Work in Columbus centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Columbus
Columbus has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more parkland per resident than 78% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Columbus and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Columbus growing, and who is moving in?
Columbus has grown about 11% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Cleveland, OH.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Columbus go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Columbus, month by month
Columbus sees roughly 64 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 31° | 23° |
| April | 67° | 53° | 41° |
| July | 88° | 76° | 66° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Columbus
John Glenn Columbus International sits about 5 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.4 million passengers in 2025, with 94 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Columbus
Schools across Columbus average a B, better than 82% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Scioto Ridge Elementary SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
- Mary Emma Bailey Elementary SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Emerson Elementary SchoolA+ · 89% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hyatts Middle SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Granville Middle SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Phoenix Middle SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
Top high schools
- Bexley High SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Olentangy High SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
- Dublin Jerome High SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Columbus school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Columbus 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 Columbus against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Columbus suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 93% of metro areas and 18% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Columbus
Is Columbus a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Columbus ranks 60th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on what local pay buys, low disaster risk, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on the weather and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Columbus expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $318,499. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $95,572 median income, cost of living beats 93% of metro areas.
Is Columbus safe?
Columbus is safer than 47% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $321 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Columbus?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 41 with lows near 23. That works out to about 64 pleasant days a year, more than 12% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Columbus?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Dublin, Delaware & Powell, Westerville & Lewis Center, and Newark, New Albany & Johnstown. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Columbus good for families?
Schools beat 82% of metro areas, crime safety beats 47%, and childcare runs $1,215 a month.
Is Columbus good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 93% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 33% of metro areas. About 18% of workers already work from home.
Compare Columbus with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Columbus. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Columbus 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.
Columbus detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Columbus: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Columbus: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Columbus: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Columbus: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Columbus 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.