Best PlacesCompton, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Compton, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Compton ranks 396th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 10 minutes away. Its strengths are the weather and big-city access. The cost shows up in education levels, thin health care access, and civic engagement.
The best neighborhoods in Compton
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 Compton
The parts of Compton, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
West Rancho Domingues
Fewer homes sit empty and local pay stretches further.
North West Long Beach
More households have young kids, though it is noisier.
Rancho Dominguez
Prices have run up less, though crime runs higher.
Scores across Compton run from about the 6th to the 63rd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Compton's strengths and weaknesses
Compton ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. The weather is the standout, in the top 1% of cities. Big-city access and transit follow.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: education levels, thin health care access, and civic engagement all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Compton ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 326 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of cities
- TransitBetter than 88% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 82% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 76% of cities
Where Compton ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 1% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 2% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 4% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Compton
A household needs to earn about $148,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Compton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $80,752, 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 Compton's effective rate of 0.75%, 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 Compton
Compton 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 Compton.
Who works in Compton, and how
Work in Compton centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Compton
Compton has more parkland per resident than 76% of cities. The coast is about 10 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Compton and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Compton, month by month
Compton sees roughly 326 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 49. Every month averages in that range.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 58° | 49° |
| April | 72° | 62° | 55° |
| July | 79° | 71° | 65° |
| October | 80° | 68° | 61° |
Flying in and out of Compton
The nearest airport, Jack Northrop Field/Hawthorne Municipal, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Los Angeles International, about 11 miles away.
The best schools in and around Compton
Schools across Compton average a C, better than 44% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Powell Academy For SuccessC− · 30% proficient
- Grant ElementaryD+ · 23% proficient
- Janie P. Abbott ElementaryD · 19% proficient
Top middle schools
- Helen Keller MiddleA · 60% proficient
Top high schools
- California Academy Of Mathematics And ScienceA+ · 98% proficient
- Eunice Sato Academy Of Math & ScienceA+ · 83% proficient
- Early College Academy-la Trade Tech CollegeB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Compton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Compton 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 Compton against the other 444 cities.
Who Compton suits
Common questions about living in Compton
Is Compton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Compton ranks 396th of 445 cities. It scores highest on the weather, big-city access, and transit, and lowest on education levels and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Compton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $570,131. The overall cost of living runs about 31% above the national average. Set against a $80,752 median income, cost of living beats 2% of cities.
Is Compton safe?
Compton is safer than 9% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $626 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Compton?
July highs average about 79 degrees, and January highs near 69 with lows near 49. That works out to about 326 pleasant days a year, more than 99% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Compton?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are West Rancho Domingues, North West Long Beach, and Rancho Dominguez. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Compton good for families?
Schools beat 44% of cities, crime safety beats 9%, and childcare runs $1,130 a month.
Is Compton good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 2% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 21% of cities. About 6% of workers already work from home.
Compare Compton with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Compton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Compton 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.
Compton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Compton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Compton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Compton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Compton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Compton 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.