Best PlacesHart County, KY Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Hart 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

Hart County ranks 2,903rd of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. Health outcomes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on clean air.

#2,903
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 Hart County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Hart 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.

Hart County's strengths and weaknesses

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Hart County with other counties.

Where Hart County ranks high

  • Air qualityBetter than 68% of counties
  • Tree shadeBetter than 66% of counties
  • Heat safetyBetter than 66% of counties
  • Cheap childcare$660 a month, better than 65% of counties
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 62% of counties

Where Hart County ranks low

  • Health outlookBetter than only 4% of counties
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 5% of counties
  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 6% of counties
  • BikingBetter than only 10% of counties
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Hart County

A household needs to earn about $37,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hart County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $54,888, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$37,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$873
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $145,606 home
Median rent
$696
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$742
Property tax$83
Homeowners insurance$49

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 Hart County's effective rate of 0.68%, 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 7 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 Hart County

Hart County's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
42
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
18%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1823%
18 to 3419%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6420%
65 and older18%

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


Who works in Hart County, and how

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

Work from home
7%
below the national average
Unemployment
4.6%
about the national average
Job growth
+0.1%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing23%
Health care & social11%
Hospitality & food10%
Retail trade9%
Construction9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 90%
  • Work from home 7%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in Hart County

Hart County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Hart County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
38
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 19.7 per 10,000 residents, more than 2% of counties

Is Hart County growing, and who is moving in?

Hart County has grown about 8% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Barren County, KY.

Population growth
+8%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
19,923
up from 18,512
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Barren County, KY294 / yr
Harrison County, KY212 / yr
Bowling Green, KY69 / yr
Elizabethtown, KY65 / yr
Estill County, KY45 / yr

Where people leaving Hart County go

Barren County, KY407 / yr
Owensboro, KY204 / yr
Bowling Green, KY153 / yr
Hopkins County, KY57 / yr
Pike County, OH40 / yr

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


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

Hart County sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January48°36°27°
April72°57°44°
July90°77°67°
October74°60°47°

Flying in and out of Hart County

The nearest airport, Louisville Muhammad Ali International, is about 62 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Nashville International, about 91 miles away.

Nearest airport
SDF
Louisville Muhammad Ali International, about 62 miles
Airport size
Small hub
69th-busiest in the US, 86 nonstop destinations
Average drive
89 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Hart County

Schools across Hart County average a D+, better than 12% 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 Hart County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Hart 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 Hart County against the other 3,143 counties.


Common questions about living in Hart County

Is Hart County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hart County ranks 2,903rd of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on clean air, tree cover, and heat safety, and lowest on health outcomes and education levels. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Hart County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $145,606. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $54,888 median income, cost of living beats 18% of counties.

Is Hart County safe?

Hart County is safer than 50% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $296 per resident a year.


Compare Hart County with other counties


Sources and methodology

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

Hart County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Hart 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.