Best PlacesDuval County, FL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Duval County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Duval County ranks 726th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 20 minutes away. Its strengths are state infrastructure and low taxes. The cost shows up in car insurance costs, noise, and summer heat.
The best neighborhoods in Duval County
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 Duval County
The parts of Duval County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Jacksonville
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and health outcomes score higher.
Atlantic Beach
It is quieter and more households have young kids.
Neptune Beach
Tree cover is thinner.
Duval County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Duval County's strengths and weaknesses
Duval County ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. State infrastructure is the standout, in the top 1% of counties. Low taxes and transit follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Car insurance costs, noise, and summer heat hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Duval County ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 99% of counties
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 95% of counties
- TransitBetter than 95% of counties
- BikingBetter than 93% of counties
- Internet speedBetter than 93% of counties
Where Duval County ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of counties
- QuietBetter than only 6% of counties
- Heat safetyBetter than only 17% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 22% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 22% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Duval County
A household needs to earn about $81,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Duval County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $78,702; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Duval County's effective rate of 0.75%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Duval County
Duval County'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 Duval County.
Who works in Duval County, and how
Work in Duval County centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Duval County
The coast is about 20 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Duval County, which the map shows.
Is Duval County growing, and who is moving in?
Duval County has grown about 18% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Jacksonville, FL metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Duval County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Duval County, month by month
Duval County sees roughly 118 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 69, with lows near 46. The comfortable stretch runs October through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69° | 57° | 46° |
| April | 84° | 72° | 62° |
| July | 94° | 83° | 76° |
| October | 84° | 75° | 67° |
Flying in and out of Duval County
Jacksonville International sits about 14 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.7 million passengers in 2025, with 86 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Duval County
Schools across Duval County average a C, better than 37% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Jacksonville Beach Elementary SchoolA+ · 99% proficient
- John Stockton Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- J. Allen Axson Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Top middle schools
- Julia Landon College Preparatory & Leadership Development ScA+ · 85% proficient
- James Weldon Johnson College Prepartory Middle SchoolA+ · 79% proficient
- Duncan U. Fletcher Middle SchoolA+ · 68% proficient
Top high schools
- Stanton College PreparatoryA+ · 84% proficient
- Douglas Anderson School Of The ArtsA · 77% proficient
- Paxon School/advanced StudiesA · 71% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Duval County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Duval County 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 Duval County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Duval County suits
Families
Schools land around the 37th percentile and crime safety beats 75%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 83% of counties, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 16% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Duval County
Is Duval County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Duval County ranks 726th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low taxes, and transit, and lowest on car insurance costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Duval County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $312,703. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $78,702 median income, cost of living beats 83% of counties.
Is Duval County safe?
Yes, Duval County is safer than 75% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $218 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Duval County?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 69 with lows near 46. That works out to about 118 pleasant days a year, more than 73% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Duval County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Jacksonville, Atlantic Beach, and Neptune Beach. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Duval County good for families?
Schools beat 37% of counties, crime safety beats 75%, and childcare runs $921 a month.
Is Duval County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 83% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 93% of counties. About 16% of workers already work from home.
Compare Duval County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Duval County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Duval County 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.
Duval County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Duval County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Duval County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Duval County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Duval County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Duval County 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.