Best PlacesLas Animas County, CO Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Las Animas 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

Las Animas County ranks 2,467th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.

#2,467
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 Las Animas County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Las Animas 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.

Las Animas County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Clean air
Top 5%Low property taxes
Top 10%The weather
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Las Animas County with other counties.

Where Las Animas County ranks high

  • Air qualityBetter than 99% of counties
  • Low property taxBetter than 97% of counties
  • Nice weatherabout 157 pleasant days a year, better than 94% of counties
  • Cheap childcare$470 a month, better than 94% of counties
  • Short commute19.5 minutes each way, better than 81% of counties

Where Las Animas County ranks low

  • School gradeD, better than only 4% of counties
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of counties
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 10% of counties
  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 10% of counties
  • Household income$53,716 median, better than only 14% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Las Animas County

A household needs to earn about $57,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Las Animas County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $53,716; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.

Income to buy the median home
$57,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,333
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $234,842 home
Median rent
$987
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,197
Property tax$58
Homeowners insurance$78

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 Las Animas County's effective rate of 0.29%, 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 8 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 Las Animas County

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

Median age
48
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
27%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.1
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1818%
18 to 3418%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6419%
65 and older27%

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


Who works in Las Animas County, and how

Work in Las Animas County centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
12%
below the national average
Unemployment
6.3%
above the national average
Job growth
−0.3%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Retail trade15%
Health care & social14%
Public administration10%
Construction9%
Education8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 81%
  • Work from home 12%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 7%

Life in Las Animas County

Las Animas County has more restaurants and bars per resident than 78% of counties and more parkland per resident than 77% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Las Animas County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
106
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 72.8 per 10,000 residents, more than 78% of counties
Coffee shops
16
about 11.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 80% of counties
Parkland
111 acres
about 7.6 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 77% of counties

Is Las Animas County growing, and who is moving in?

Las Animas County has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Denver, CO.

Population growth
+3%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
14,518
up from 14,048
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Denver, CO370 / yr
Pueblo, CO117 / yr
San Antonio, TX96 / yr
Grand Forks, ND58 / yr
Midland, TX51 / yr

Where people leaving Las Animas County go

Henderson County, TX168 / yr
Austin, TX164 / yr
Hutchinson County, TX110 / yr
Wilmington, NC104 / yr
Alamosa County, CO61 / yr

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


What the weather is like in Las Animas County, month by month

Las Animas County sees roughly 157 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 49, 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
January49°32°17°
April70°51°33°
July93°75°59°
October73°53°37°

Flying in and out of Las Animas County

The nearest airport, Pueblo Memorial, is about 76 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Denver International, about 185 miles away.

Nearest airport
PUB
Pueblo Memorial, about 76 miles
Airport size
Nonprimary
1 nonstop destinations
Average drive
108 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Las Animas County

Schools across Las Animas County average a D, better than 4% 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 Las Animas County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Las Animas 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 Las Animas County against the other 3,143 counties.


Common questions about living in Las Animas County

Is Las Animas County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Las Animas County ranks 2,467th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on clean air, low property taxes, and the weather, and lowest on the schools and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Las Animas County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $234,842. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $53,716 median income, cost of living beats 15% of counties.

Is Las Animas County safe?

Las Animas County is safer than 10% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $769 per resident a year.


Compare Las Animas County with other counties


Sources and methodology

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

Las Animas County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Las Animas 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.