Best PlacesCook, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cook, 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.
Cook ranks 28,617th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Cook
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.
Cook's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cook ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 90% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 89% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 137 pleasant days a year, better than 88% of towns
- BikingBetter than 83% of towns
Where Cook ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 17% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cook
A household needs to earn about $68,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cook home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $72,939, 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 Cook's effective rate of 0.78%, 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 Cook
Cook runs older 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 Cook.
Who works in Cook, and how
Work in Cook centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Cook
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Cook.
What the weather is like in Cook, month by month
Cook sees roughly 137 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 20, with lows near 2. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 20° | 11° | 2° |
| April | 48° | 37° | 27° |
| July | 79° | 67° | 55° |
| October | 52° | 43° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Cook
The nearest airport, Range Regional, is about 34 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 208 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cook
Schools across Cook average a C+, better than 52% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- North Woods ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Lincoln ElementaryB+ · 54% proficient
- Tower-soudan ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
Top high schools
- Hibbing HighB · 45% proficient
- Bigfork SecondaryC · 34% proficient
- North Woods SecondaryC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cook school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cook 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 Cook against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cook
Is Cook a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cook ranks 28,617th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, clean air, and health care access, and lowest on distance from a big city and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cook expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $260,335. The overall cost of living runs about 6% above the national average. Set against a $72,939 median income, cost of living beats 29% of towns.
Is Cook safe?
Cook is safer than 22% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $425 per resident a year.
Compare Cook with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cook. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cook 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.
Cook detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cook: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cook: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cook: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cook: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cook 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.