Best PlacesDenver, CO Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Denver metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by David Herrera from Albuquerque, NM, Bernalillo, CC BY 2.0, via commons
Denver ranks 75th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $119,484, wages outrun the cost of living, and an educated workforce ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are childcare costs, air quality, and state finances.
The best neighborhoods in the Denver 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 Denver
The towns and districts of the Denver 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.
Highlands Ranch, Centennial & Englewood
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Parker & Castle Rock
More households have young kids, though streets are more car-dependent.
Littleton, Ken Caryl & Dakota Ridge
More residents vote, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Arvada, Broomfield & Westminster
Schools score higher and health care is easier to reach.
Downtown Denver
Biking is better, though crime runs higher.
Lakewood & Golden
Scores close to Downtown Denver, except that it is quieter here.
Brighton & Commerce City
Tree cover is thinner.
Thornton & Northglenn
Homes cost less.
Aurora
Scores close to Thornton & Northglenn, except that more homes sit empty here.
Denver 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.
Denver's strengths and weaknesses
Denver ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Biking is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Heat safety and what local pay buys follow.
The one real hole is childcare costs, near the bottom of the country. Air quality and state finances also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Denver ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Household income$119,484 median, better than 98% of metro areas
Where Denver ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,676 a month, better than only 2% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Short commute27.0 minutes each way, better than only 13% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Denver
A household needs to earn about $158,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Denver home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $119,484, 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 Denver's effective rate of 0.55%, 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 Denver
Denver's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Denver.
Who works in Denver, and how
Work in Denver centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Denver
Denver has more parkland per resident than 82% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 82% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Denver and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Denver growing, and who is moving in?
Denver has grown about 11% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Boulder, CO.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Denver go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Denver, month by month
Denver sees roughly 113 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 31° | 18° |
| April | 65° | 48° | 32° |
| July | 92° | 74° | 59° |
| October | 70° | 51° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Denver
Denver International sits about 17 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 40.1 million passengers in 2025, with 250 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Denver
Schools across Denver average a C, better than 36% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Dennison Elementary SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- Polaris Elementary SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Parker Core Knowledge Charter SchoolA+ · 81% proficient
Top middle schools
- Englewood Leadership AcademyA+ · 78% proficient
- Mcauliffe International SchoolA · 67% proficient
- Manning Options SchoolA · 65% proficient
Top high schools
- Evergreen High SchoolA · 75% proficient
- D'evelyn Junior/senior High SchoolA · 73% proficient
- Cherry Creek High SchoolA · 71% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Denver school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Denver 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 Denver against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Denver suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 98% of metro areas and 24% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Denver
Is Denver a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Denver ranks 75th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on biking, heat safety, and what local pay buys, and lowest on childcare costs and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Denver expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $626,115. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $119,484 median income, cost of living beats 98% of metro areas.
Is Denver safe?
Denver is safer than 21% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $596 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Denver?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 47 with lows near 18. That works out to about 113 pleasant days a year, more than 69% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Denver?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Highlands Ranch, Centennial & Englewood, Parker & Castle Rock, and Littleton, Ken Caryl & Dakota Ridge. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Denver good for families?
Schools beat 36% of metro areas, crime safety beats 21%, and childcare runs $1,676 a month.
Is Denver good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 98% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 51% of metro areas. About 24% of workers already work from home.
Compare Denver with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Denver. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Denver 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.
Denver detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Denver: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Denver: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Denver: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Denver: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Denver 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.