Best PlacesGeauga County, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Geauga County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Geauga County ranks 47th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and walkability ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Geauga 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 Geauga County
The parts of Geauga 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.
Chagrin Falls & South Russell
More adults hold degrees, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Newbury
Fewer households have young kids and prices have run up more.
Chardon
More residents vote.
Chesterland & Novelty
Tree cover is thicker.
Middlefield & Burton
Schools score lower and health care is harder to reach.
Parkman
Homes cost less, though commutes are longer.
Scores across Geauga County run from about the 34th to the 99th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Geauga County's strengths and weaknesses
Where Geauga County ranks high
- School gradeA, better than 99% of counties
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 97% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than 96% of counties
- Household income$116,438 median, better than 96% of counties
Where Geauga County ranks low
- WalkabilityBetter than only 5% of counties
- Cheap childcare$1,273 a month, better than only 8% of counties
- Low property taxBetter than only 12% of counties
- Air qualityBetter than only 25% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 25% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Geauga County
A household needs to earn about $95,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Geauga County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $116,438, 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 Geauga County's effective rate of 1.37%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Geauga County
Geauga County runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Geauga County.
Who works in Geauga County, and how
Work in Geauga County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Geauga County
Geauga County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and more parkland per resident than 83% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Geauga County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Geauga County growing, and who is moving in?
Geauga County has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Cleveland, OH metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Geauga County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Geauga County, month by month
Geauga County sees roughly 90 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 30° | 24° |
| April | 59° | 50° | 41° |
| July | 82° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 64° | 57° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Geauga County
Cleveland-Hopkins International sits about 33 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 4.9 million passengers in 2025, with 72 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Geauga County
Schools across Geauga County average an A, better than 99% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Gurney Elementary SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
- Park Elementary SchoolA+ · 89% proficient
- Robert C Lindsey Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
Top middle schools
- Chagrin Falls Intermediate Elementary SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Chardon Middle SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Kenston Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Top high schools
- Kenston High SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
- Chagrin Falls High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Kirtland High SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Geauga County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Geauga 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 Geauga County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Geauga County suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 98% of counties and 17% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Geauga County
Is Geauga County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Geauga County ranks 47th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on good schools, what local pay buys, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on walkability and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Geauga County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $335,702. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $116,438 median income, cost of living beats 98% of counties.
Is Geauga County safe?
Yes, Geauga County is safer than 75% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $251 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Geauga County?
July highs average about 82 degrees, and January highs near 36 with lows near 24. That works out to about 90 pleasant days a year, more than 51% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Geauga County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Chagrin Falls & South Russell, Newbury, and Chardon. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Geauga County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Geauga County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Geauga 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.
Geauga County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Geauga County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Geauga County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Geauga County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Geauga County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Geauga 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.