Best PlacesFulton County, PA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Fulton County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Fulton County ranks 1,318th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and biking ranks lowest.

#1,318
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Fulton County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Fulton County 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.

Fulton County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Tree cover
Top 10%Big-city access
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Fulton County with other counties.

Where Fulton County ranks high

  • Tree shadeBetter than 95% of counties
  • Big-city accessBetter than 91% of counties
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 88% of counties
  • School gradeB+, better than 86% of counties
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 75% of counties

Where Fulton County ranks low

  • BikingBetter than only 9% of counties
  • Short commute31.5 minutes each way, better than only 11% of counties
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 14% of counties
  • Local economyBetter than only 15% of counties
  • Cell coverageBetter than only 20% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Fulton County

A household needs to earn about $56,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fulton County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $67,444, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$56,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,297
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $209,046 home
Median rent
$822
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,066
Property tax$162
Homeowners insurance$70

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 Fulton County's effective rate of 0.93%, 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 10 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 Fulton County

Fulton County runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
47
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
23%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.3
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1819%
18 to 3418%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6421%
65 and older23%

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


Who works in Fulton County, and how

Work in Fulton County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
4.0%
below the national average
Job growth
−0.8%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing20%
Health care & social14%
Retail trade9%
Construction9%
Public administration8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 88%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in Fulton County

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Fulton County.

Places to eat and drink
61
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 41.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 40% of counties
Coffee shops
6
about 4.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 35% of counties

Is Fulton County growing, and who is moving in?

Fulton County has lost about 1% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Hagerstown, MD.

Population growth
-1%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
14,452
down from 14,535
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Hagerstown, MD125 / yr
Chambersburg, PA103 / yr
Pittsburgh, PA57 / yr
Bedford County, PA57 / yr
Myrtle Beach, SC44 / yr

Where people leaving Fulton County go

Chambersburg, PA203 / yr
Bedford County, PA91 / yr
Huntingdon County, PA31 / yr
Baltimore, MD28 / yr
Pittsburgh, PA23 / yr

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


What the weather is like in Fulton County, month by month

Fulton County sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, 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
January43°34°25°
April68°55°43°
July90°79°68°
October71°59°48°

Flying in and out of Fulton County

The nearest airport, Hagerstown Regional/Richard A Henson Field, is about 24 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Washington Dulles International, about 75 miles away.

Nearest airport
HGR
Hagerstown Regional/Richard A Henson Field, about 24 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
282nd-busiest in the US, 5 nonstop destinations
Average drive
34 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Fulton County

Schools across Fulton County average a B+, better than 86% of counties.

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 Fulton County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Fulton 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 Fulton County against the other 3,143 counties.


Common questions about living in Fulton County

Is Fulton County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fulton County ranks 1,318th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on tree cover, big-city access, and low disaster risk, and lowest on biking and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Fulton County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $209,046. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $67,444 median income, cost of living beats 46% of counties.

Is Fulton County safe?

Yes, Fulton County is safer than 71% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $260 per resident a year.


Compare Fulton County with other counties


Sources and methodology

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

Fulton County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Fulton County 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.