Best PlacesGosper County, NE Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Gosper County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Gosper County ranks 1,157th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state finances by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.

#1,157
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 Gosper County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Gosper 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.

Gosper County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%State finances
Top 5%Health care access
Top 5%Quiet
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Gosper County with other counties.

Where Gosper County ranks high

  • State fiscal healthBetter than 98% of counties
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of counties
  • QuietBetter than 95% of counties
  • Air qualityBetter than 92% of counties
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 84% of counties

Where Gosper County ranks low

  • Big-city accessBetter than only 4% of counties
  • Internet speedBetter than only 6% of counties
  • Low vacancyBetter than only 6% of counties
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of counties
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 12% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Gosper County

A household needs to earn about $66,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gosper County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $78,403, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$66,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,544
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $250,129 home
Median rent
$791
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,275
Property tax$185
Homeowners insurance$83

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 Gosper County's effective rate of 0.89%, 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.

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

Who lives in Gosper County

Gosper County runs older than the country.

Median age
48
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
24%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1820%
18 to 3414%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6423%
65 and older24%

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


Who works in Gosper County, and how

Work in Gosper County centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
7%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.1%
below the national average
Job growth
+1.5%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Agriculture & forestry19%
Health care & social17%
Retail trade11%
Education9%
Public administration9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 88%
  • Work from home 7%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 5%

Life in Gosper County

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


Is Gosper County growing, and who is moving in?

Gosper County has lost about 10% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Dawson County, NE.

Population growth
-10%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
1,808
down from 2,004
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Dawson County, NE18 / yr
Omaha, NE18 / yr
Denver, CO15 / yr
St Louis, MO12 / yr
Webster County, NE11 / yr

Where people leaving Gosper County go

Dawson County, NE48 / yr
Scotts Bluff County, NE47 / yr
Gage County, NE39 / yr
Phelps County, NE20 / yr
Thomas County, KS19 / yr

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


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

Gosper County sees roughly 130 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January38°26°17°
April66°50°36°
July88°75°64°
October67°51°39°

Flying in and out of Gosper County

The nearest airport, Kearney Regional, is about 44 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Eppley Airfield, about 211 miles away.

Nearest airport
EAR
Kearney Regional, about 44 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
331st-busiest in the US, 1 nonstop destinations
Average drive
63 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Gosper County

Schools across Gosper County average a C+, better than 52% 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 Gosper County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Gosper 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 Gosper County against the other 3,143 counties.


Common questions about living in Gosper County

Is Gosper County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gosper County ranks 1,157th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on state finances, health care access, and quiet, and lowest on distance from a big city and internet speeds. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Gosper County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $250,129. The overall cost of living runs about 6% above the national average. Set against a $78,403 median income, cost of living beats 37% of counties.

Is Gosper County safe?

Yes, Gosper County is safer than 79% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $255 per resident a year.


Compare Gosper County with other counties


Sources and methodology

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

Gosper County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Gosper 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.