Best PlacesKenosha, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Kenosha metro, 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.
Photo by artistmac, CC BY-SA 2.0, via wiki
Kenosha ranks 142nd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on cheap car insurance and big-city access. The weaker spots are property taxes, the schools, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in the Kenosha metro
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 Kenosha
The towns and districts of the Kenosha metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Pleasant Prairie
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and crime runs lower.
Paddock Lake
Streets are more car-dependent and more homes sit empty.
Twin Lakes, Trevor & Bristol
More residents vote, though biking is worse.
Downtown Kenosha
Prices have run up more and schools score lower.
Kenosha shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 7% of the country and others in the top 3%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Kenosha's strengths and weaknesses
Kenosha lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cheap car insurance, big-city access, and low disaster risk carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Property taxes, the schools, and childcare costs hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Kenosha to another than it does between Kenosha and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Kenosha ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 83% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 82% of metro areas
Where Kenosha ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- School gradeC−, better than only 14% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,303 a month, better than only 15% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 16% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Kenosha
A household needs to earn about $80,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kenosha home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $87,375, 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 Kenosha's effective rate of 1.48%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Kenosha
Kenosha's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Kenosha.
Who works in Kenosha, and how
Work in Kenosha centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Kenosha
Kenosha has more restaurants and bars per resident than 71% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 94% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Kenosha and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Kenosha growing, and who is moving in?
Kenosha has held roughly flat in population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Chicago, IL.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Kenosha go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Kenosha, month by month
Kenosha sees roughly 101 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 26° | 19° |
| April | 58° | 47° | 38° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Kenosha
General Mitchell International sits about 25 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.9 million passengers in 2025, with 66 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Kenosha
Schools across Kenosha average a C−, better than 14% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Brompton SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Paris ElementaryA− · 57% proficient
- Jeffery ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mahone MiddleB− · 42% proficient
- Lance MiddleC · 33% proficient
- Bullen MiddleD · 19% proficient
Top high schools
- Central HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Indian Trail High School And AcademyC− · 28% proficient
- Harborside AcademyC− · 27% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kenosha school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kenosha 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 Kenosha against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Kenosha suits
Families
Schools land around the 14th percentile and crime safety beats 57%.
Retirees
The weather beats 60% of metro areas and health care access beats 75%.
Common questions about living in Kenosha
Is Kenosha a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kenosha ranks 142nd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, big-city access, and low disaster risk, and lowest on property taxes and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kenosha expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $280,241. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $87,375 median income, cost of living beats 55% of metro areas.
Is Kenosha safe?
Yes, Kenosha is safer than 57% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $336 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Kenosha?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 33 with lows near 19. That works out to about 101 pleasant days a year, more than 60% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Kenosha?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Pleasant Prairie, Paddock Lake, and Twin Lakes, Trevor & Bristol. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Kenosha good for families?
Schools beat 14% of metro areas, crime safety beats 57%, and childcare runs $1,303 a month.
Is Kenosha good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 55% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 47% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Kenosha with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kenosha. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kenosha 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.
Kenosha detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kenosha: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kenosha: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kenosha: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kenosha: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kenosha 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.