Best PlacesEvansville, IN Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in the Evansville 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.

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Evansville, IN

Photo by abbyevv, Unsplash License, via unsplash

Evansville ranks 299th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on the weather and crime. It does better on health care access, which keeps it off the bottom.

#299
of 387 metro areas
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 387 metro areas
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in the Evansville metro

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Evansville Metro area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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 Evansville

The towns and districts of the Evansville 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.

#1

Newburgh

Crime runs lower, prices have run up less, and fewer homes sit empty.

WorseBetter
61st nationally
#2

Boonville & Chandler

It is quieter and more residents vote.

WorseBetter
52nd nationally
#3

Wadesville

Biking is worse and streets are more car-dependent.

WorseBetter
47th nationally
#4

Mount Vernon

Tree cover is thicker, though fewer households have young kids.

WorseBetter
39th nationally
#5

Downtown Evansville

Local pay stretches less far and incomes run lower.

WorseBetter
18th nationally

Evansville shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 2% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.


Evansville's strengths and weaknesses

Evansville ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Health care access, cheap car insurance, and state infrastructure carry most of that.

The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: the weather, crime, and noise all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Evansville with other metro areas.

Where Evansville ranks high

  • Healthcare accessBetter than 90% of metro areas
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 86% of metro areas
  • State infrastructureBetter than 79% of metro areas
  • Short commute20.9 minutes each way, better than 76% of metro areas
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 69% of metro areas

Where Evansville ranks low

  • Nice weatherabout 52 pleasant days a year, better than only 1% of metro areas
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
  • QuietBetter than only 8% of metro areas
  • TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
  • Big-city accessBetter than only 20% of metro areas

What it costs to buy a home in Evansville

A household needs to earn about $53,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Evansville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $77,472, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$53,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,226
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $202,634 home
Median rent
$1,048
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,033
Property tax$125
Homeowners insurance$68

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 Evansville's effective rate of 0.74%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Evansville

Evansville's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
41
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
19%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.3
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1821%
18 to 3422%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6419%
65 and older19%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Evansville.


Who works in Evansville, and how

Work in Evansville centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.6%
below the national average
Job growth
+0.7%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing17%
Health care & social17%
Retail trade12%
Education8%
Hospitality & food7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 87%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 5%

Life in Evansville

Evansville has more parkland per resident than 68% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Evansville and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
1,339
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 49.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 58% of metro areas
Coffee shops
109
about 4.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 20% of metro areas
Parkland
1,820 acres
about 6.8 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 68% of metro areas
Open past 10pm
~212
food and drink venues open late, about 7.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 40% of metro areas
Living on campus
2,997
students living in college or university housing

Is Evansville growing, and who is moving in?

Evansville has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Indianapolis, IN.

Population growth
+1%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
271,793
up from 268,493
Growth pace
26th percentile
of US metros by growth
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Indianapolis, IN1,453 / yr
Gibson County, IN1,397 / yr
Owensboro, KY651 / yr
Tampa, FL549 / yr
Richmond County, NC452 / yr

Where people leaving Evansville go

Terre Haute, IN1,068 / yr
Indianapolis, IN478 / yr
Owensboro, KY445 / yr
Putnam County, IN368 / yr
Louisville, KY328 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Evansville, month by month

Evansville sees roughly 52 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January45°34°25°
April71°57°45°
July91°79°69°
October75°60°48°

Flying in and out of Evansville

The nearest airport, Evansville Regional, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Indianapolis International, about 137 miles away.

Nearest airport
EVV
Evansville Regional, about 3 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
187th-busiest in the US, 23 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Evansville

Schools across Evansville average a B−, better than 65% of metro areas.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Evansville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Evansville 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 Evansville against the other 386 metro areas.


Who Evansville suits

Families

Schools beat 65% of metro areas.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 8% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Health care access beats 90%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Evansville

Is Evansville a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Evansville ranks 299th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on health care access, cheap car insurance, and state infrastructure, and lowest on the weather and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Evansville expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $202,634. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $77,472 median income, cost of living beats 59% of metro areas.

Is Evansville safe?

Evansville is safer than 7% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $451 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Evansville?

July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 45 with lows near 25. That works out to about 52 pleasant days a year, more than 0% of metro areas.

What are the best neighborhoods in Evansville?

Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Newburgh, Boonville & Chandler, and Wadesville. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.

Is Evansville good for families?

Schools beat 65% of metro areas, crime safety beats 7%, and childcare runs $886 a month.

Is Evansville good for remote workers?

Cost of living against local pay beats 59% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 63% of metro areas. About 8% of workers already work from home.


Compare Evansville with other metro areas


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Evansville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Evansville 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.

Evansville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Evansville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Evansville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Evansville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Evansville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Evansville detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.