Best PlacesKent County, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Kent County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Kent County ranks 2,101st of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Kent 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.
Kent County's strengths and weaknesses
Where Kent County ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 98% of counties
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of counties
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of counties
- Educational attainmentBetter than 88% of counties
- QuietBetter than 76% of counties
Where Kent County ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than only 7% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 7% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 15% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Kent County
A household needs to earn about $87,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kent County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $74,780, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Kent County's effective rate of 0.98%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Kent County
Kent County runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Kent County.
Who works in Kent County, and how
Work in Kent County centers on education and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 14%
Life in Kent County
Kent County has more restaurants and bars per resident than 94% of counties and more parkland per resident than 92% of counties. The coast is about 16 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Kent County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Kent County growing, and who is moving in?
Kent County has lost about 1% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Baltimore, MD.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Kent County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Kent County, month by month
Kent County sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 35° | 26° |
| April | 67° | 55° | 43° |
| July | 89° | 80° | 68° |
| October | 70° | 60° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Kent County
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 33 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.3 million passengers in 2025, with 114 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Kent County
Schools across Kent County average a C−, better than 18% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Clayton Elementary SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Rock Hall ElementaryD · 20% proficient
- Galena Elementary SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Top middle schools
- Kent County Middle SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Kent County HighB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kent County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kent 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 Kent County against the other 3,143 counties.
Common questions about living in Kent County
Is Kent County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kent County ranks 2,101st of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on fast internet, big-city access, and health care access, and lowest on taxes and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kent County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $324,078. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $74,780 median income, cost of living beats 66% of counties.
Is Kent County safe?
Kent County is safer than 19% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $484 per resident a year.
Compare Kent County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kent County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kent 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.
Kent County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kent County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kent County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kent County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kent County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kent 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.