Best PlacesHenry County, VA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Henry County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Henry County ranks 1,985th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and walkability ranks lowest.

#1,985
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 Henry County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Henry 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.

The best areas in Henry County

The parts of Henry 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.

#1

Martinsville

Local pay stretches further, more adults hold degrees, and incomes run higher.

WorseBetter
44th nationally
#2

Ridgeway

More households have young kids, though more homes sit empty.

WorseBetter
34th nationally
#3

Fieldale

Prices have run up less, though commutes are longer.

WorseBetter
26th nationally
#4

Bassett

Scores close to Fieldale, except that tree cover is thicker here.

WorseBetter
25th nationally
#5

Collinsville

It is noisier and health care is harder to reach.

WorseBetter
25th nationally

Scores across Henry County run from about the 8th to the 75th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.


Henry County's strengths and weaknesses

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

Where Henry County ranks high

  • Tree shadeBetter than 93% of counties
  • Cheap childcare$513 a month, better than 88% of counties
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 87% of counties
  • School gradeB+, better than 83% of counties
  • Low property taxBetter than 82% of counties

Where Henry County ranks low

  • WalkabilityBetter than only 6% of counties
  • Health outlookBetter than only 12% of counties
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 13% of counties
  • Household income$53,806 median, better than only 14% of counties
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 15% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Henry County

A household needs to earn about $35,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Henry County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $53,806, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$35,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$819
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $140,130 home
Median rent
$794
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$714
Property tax$57
Homeowners insurance$47

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 Henry County's effective rate of 0.49%, 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 5 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 Henry County

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

Median age
49
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
26%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.3
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1818%
18 to 3417%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6420%
65 and older26%

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


Who works in Henry County, and how

Work in Henry County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
9%
below the national average
Unemployment
5.1%
about the national average
Job growth
+4.8%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing19%
Health care & social15%
Education10%
Retail trade10%
Construction6%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 89%
  • Work from home 9%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Henry County

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

Places to eat and drink
230
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 45.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 48% of counties
Coffee shops
21
about 4.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 35% of counties
Open past 10pm
~42
food and drink venues open late, about 8.2 per 10,000 residents, more than 63% of counties

Is Henry County growing, and who is moving in?

Henry County has lost about 6% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Martinsville City, VA.

Population growth
-6%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
49,385
down from 52,237
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Martinsville City, VA321 / yr
Roanoke, VA168 / yr
Pittsylvania County, VA125 / yr
Carroll County, VA83 / yr
Greensboro, NC72 / yr

Where people leaving Henry County go

Martinsville City, VA885 / yr
Roanoke, VA306 / yr
Greensboro, NC194 / yr
Blacksburg, VA101 / yr
Patrick County, VA91 / yr

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


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

Henry County sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 25. 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
January49°36°25°
April73°57°42°
July89°76°65°
October73°58°45°

Flying in and out of Henry County

The nearest airport, Piedmont Triad International, is about 41 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Raleigh-Durham International, about 84 miles away.

Nearest airport
GSO
Piedmont Triad International, about 41 miles
Airport size
Small hub
104th-busiest in the US, 35 nonstop destinations
Average drive
58 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Henry County

Schools across Henry County average a B+, better than 83% 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 Henry County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Henry 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 Henry County against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Henry County suits

Families

Schools beat 83% of counties.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

9% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Henry County

Is Henry County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Henry County ranks 1,985th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on tree cover, affordable childcare, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on walkability and health outcomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Henry County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $140,130. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $53,806 median income, cost of living beats 17% of counties.

Is Henry County safe?

Henry County is safer than 54% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $337 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Henry County?

July highs average about 89 degrees, and January highs near 49 with lows near 25. That works out to about 71 pleasant days a year, more than 22% of counties.

What are the best neighborhoods in Henry County?

Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Martinsville, Ridgeway, and Fieldale. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.


Compare Henry County with other counties


Sources and methodology

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

Henry County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Henry 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.