Best PlacesCotton, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cotton, 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.
Cotton ranks 24,543rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Cotton
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.
Cotton's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cotton ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 93% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 92% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 81% of towns
Where Cotton ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 11% of towns
- Short commute35.4 minutes each way, better than only 13% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cotton
A household needs to earn about $61,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cotton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $92,387, 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 Cotton's effective rate of 0.60%, 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 Cotton
Cotton 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 Cotton.
Who works in Cotton, and how
Work in Cotton centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Cotton
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Cotton.
What the weather is like in Cotton, month by month
Cotton sees roughly 120 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 | 49° | 37° | 27° |
| July | 79° | 66° | 54° |
| October | 53° | 43° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Cotton
The nearest airport, Range Regional, is about 24 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 162 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cotton
Schools across Cotton average a C, better than 33% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- South Ridge ElementaryB− · 42% proficient
- Mesabi East ElementaryB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Mesabi East SecondaryC · 33% proficient
- South Ridge SecondaryD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cotton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cotton 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 Cotton against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cotton
Is Cotton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cotton ranks 24,543rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, clean air, and state infrastructure, and lowest on internet speeds and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cotton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $241,652. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $92,387 median income, cost of living beats 75% of towns.
Is Cotton safe?
Cotton is safer than 33% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $374 per resident a year.
Compare Cotton with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cotton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cotton 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.
Cotton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cotton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cotton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cotton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cotton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cotton 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.