Best PlacesDuluth, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Duluth metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Tony Webster from San Francisco, California, CC BY-SA 2.0, via commons
Duluth ranks 201st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on internet speeds and distance from a big city. It does better on low disaster risk, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Duluth 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 Duluth
The towns and districts of the Duluth 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.
Downtown Duluth
More adults hold degrees, biking is better, and transit reaches more jobs.
Hermantown & Proctor
More households have young kids and fewer homes sit empty.
Superior
Tree cover is thinner and schools score lower.
Cloquet & Esko
Crime runs lower, though it is noisier.
Moose Lake & Barnum
Streets are more car-dependent and fewer residents vote.
Gilbert, Aurora & Hoyt Lakes
Homes cost less, though big-city amenities are further off.
Hibbing, Virginia & Chisholm
Incomes run lower and local pay stretches less far.
Ely
Advertised internet is faster.
Duluth shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 11% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Duluth's strengths and weaknesses
Duluth lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low disaster risk is the standout, in the top 3% of metro areas. Clean air and heat safety follow.
The one real hole is internet speeds, near the bottom of the country. Distance from a big city and a weak job market also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Duluth ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 84% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than 84% of metro areas
Where Duluth ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 20% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Duluth
A household needs to earn about $65,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Duluth home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $77,076, 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 Duluth's effective rate of 1.06%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Duluth
Duluth 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 Duluth.
Who works in Duluth, and how
Work in Duluth centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Duluth
Duluth has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 93% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Duluth and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Duluth growing, and who is moving in?
Duluth has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Minneapolis, MN.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Duluth go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Duluth, month by month
Duluth sees roughly 100 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 5. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 14° | 5° |
| April | 49° | 38° | 28° |
| July | 81° | 68° | 56° |
| October | 56° | 46° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Duluth
The nearest airport, Duluth International, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 143 miles away.
The best schools in and around Duluth
Schools across Duluth average a B−, better than 62% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Congdon ElementaryA+ · 77% proficient
- Lester Park ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Winterquist ElementaryA+ · 73% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hermantown MiddleB+ · 50% proficient
- Ordean East Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
- Lincoln Park Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Harbor City International CharterA · 70% proficient
- Lincoln SecondaryA− · 62% proficient
- East High SchoolA− · 59% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Duluth school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Duluth 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 Duluth against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Duluth suits
Retirees
The weather beats 59% of metro areas, health care access beats 84%, and it is quieter than 58%.
Common questions about living in Duluth
Is Duluth a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Duluth ranks 201st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low disaster risk, clean air, and heat safety, and lowest on internet speeds and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Duluth expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $241,403. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $77,076 median income, cost of living beats 50% of metro areas.
Is Duluth safe?
Duluth is safer than 27% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $427 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Duluth?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 23 with lows near 5. That works out to about 100 pleasant days a year, more than 59% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Duluth?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Duluth, Hermantown & Proctor, and Superior. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Duluth good for families?
Schools beat 62% of metro areas, crime safety beats 27%, and childcare runs $965 a month.
Is Duluth good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 50% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 2% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Duluth with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Duluth. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Duluth 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.
Duluth detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Duluth: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Duluth: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Duluth: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Duluth: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Duluth 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.