Best PlacesCovington, KY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Covington, 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.
Covington ranks 37,171st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Covington
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.
Covington's strengths and weaknesses
Where Covington ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of towns
- Short commute20.1 minutes each way, better than 87% of towns
Where Covington ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 1% of towns
- School gradeD−, better than only 3% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 7% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Covington
A household needs to earn about $64,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Covington home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $57,014, 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 Covington's effective rate of 1.09%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Covington
Covington 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 Covington.
Who works in Covington, and how
Work in Covington centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Covington
Covington has more restaurants and bars per resident than 97% of towns and more parkland per resident than 97% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Covington and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Covington, month by month
Covington sees roughly 61 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 44, 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 | 44° | 33° | 23° |
| April | 69° | 54° | 41° |
| July | 89° | 76° | 65° |
| October | 72° | 57° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Covington
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International sits about 9 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.4 million passengers in 2025, with 99 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Covington
Schools across Covington average a D−, better than 3% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Beechwood Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Ft Wright Elementary SchoolB · 49% proficient
- Glenn O Swing ElementaryC · 35% proficient
Top middle schools
- Holmes Middle SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Top high schools
- Beechwood High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Ludlow High SchoolD · 23% proficient
- Newport High SchoolD · 18% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Covington school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Covington 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 Covington against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Covington suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 13% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Covington
Is Covington a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Covington ranks 37,171st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, transit, and biking, and lowest on noise and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Covington expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $237,326. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $57,014 median income, cost of living beats 24% of towns.
Is Covington safe?
Covington is safer than 11% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $488 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Covington?
July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 23. That works out to about 61 pleasant days a year, more than 10% of towns.
Is Covington good for families?
Schools beat 3% of towns, crime safety beats 11%, and childcare runs $866 a month.
Compare Covington with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Covington. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Covington 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.
Covington detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Covington: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Covington: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Covington: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Covington: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Covington 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.