Best PlacesFort Lewis, WA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fort Lewis, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Fort Lewis ranks 34,297th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Fort Lewis
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.
Fort Lewis' strengths and weaknesses
Where Fort Lewis ranks high
- Short commute11.4 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 97% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
- BikingBetter than 94% of towns
Where Fort Lewis ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 7% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,327 a month, better than only 8% of towns
Who lives in Fort Lewis
Fort Lewis runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Fort Lewis.
Who works in Fort Lewis, and how
Work in Fort Lewis centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 19%
Life in Fort Lewis
The coast is about 15 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Fort Lewis, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Fort Lewis, month by month
Fort Lewis sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 40° | 33° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 37° |
| July | 81° | 67° | 52° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Fort Lewis
Seattle-Tacoma International sits about 28 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 25.4 million passengers in 2025, with 172 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Fort Lewis
Schools across Fort Lewis average a C−, better than 24% of towns.
Top middle schools
- Lakeridge Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fort Lewis school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fort Lewis 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 Fort Lewis against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Fort Lewis
Is Fort Lewis a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fort Lewis ranks 34,297th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, population health, and cell coverage, and lowest on civic engagement and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fort Lewis safe?
Fort Lewis is safer than 31% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $543 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Fort Lewis?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 33. That works out to about 89 pleasant days a year, more than 59% of towns.
Compare Fort Lewis with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fort Lewis. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fort Lewis 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.
Fort Lewis detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fort Lewis: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fort Lewis: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fort Lewis: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fort Lewis: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fort Lewis 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.
- 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.