Best PlacesLincoln County, OK Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Lincoln County, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Lincoln County ranks 2,339th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. The weather pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on low property taxes.

#2,339
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 Lincoln County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Lincoln 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 Lincoln County

The parts of Lincoln 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

Prague

WorseBetter
30th nationally
#2

Stroud

Advertised internet is faster, though it is noisier.

WorseBetter
25th nationally
#3

Chandler

Streets are more walkable, though local pay stretches less far.

WorseBetter
20th nationally

Scores across Lincoln County run from about the 9th to the 42nd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.


Lincoln 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 Lincoln County with other counties.

Where Lincoln County ranks high

  • Low property taxBetter than 88% of counties
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 84% of counties
  • Internet speedBetter than 77% of counties
  • Low vacancyBetter than 68% of counties
  • Local economyBetter than 64% of counties

Where Lincoln County ranks low

  • Nice weatherabout 59 pleasant days a year, better than only 5% of counties
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of counties
  • Air qualityBetter than only 13% of counties
  • Health outlookBetter than only 17% of counties
  • School gradeD+, better than only 17% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Lincoln County

A household needs to earn about $43,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lincoln County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $63,334, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$43,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,006
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $173,642 home
Median rent
$850
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$885
Property tax$63
Homeowners insurance$58

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 Lincoln County's effective rate of 0.44%, 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 6 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 Lincoln County

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

Median age
42
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
20%
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 older20%

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


Who works in Lincoln County, and how

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

Work from home
11%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.9%
below the national average
Job growth
+4.0%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social12%
Retail trade12%
Construction11%
Manufacturing8%
Public administration8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 87%
  • Work from home 11%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Lincoln County

Lincoln County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and less parkland per resident than most counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Lincoln County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
101
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 30.2 per 10,000 residents, more than 13% of counties
Coffee shops
16
about 4.8 per 10,000 residents, more than 45% of counties
Parkland
58 acres
about 1.7 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 20% of counties

Is Lincoln County growing, and who is moving in?

Lincoln County has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Oklahoma City, OK metro.

Population growth
+1%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
34,972
up from 34,527
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

The rest of the Oklahoma City, OK metro554 / yr
Payne County, OK235 / yr
Tulsa, OK112 / yr
Pottawatomie County, OK101 / yr
Le Flore County, OK70 / yr

Where people leaving Lincoln County go

The rest of the Oklahoma City, OK metro756 / yr
Pottawatomie County, OK252 / yr
Phoenix, AZ226 / yr
Tulsa, OK187 / yr
Custer County, OK58 / yr

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


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

Lincoln County sees roughly 59 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January51°38°29°
April74°60°49°
July93°81°71°
October76°62°52°

Flying in and out of Lincoln County

The nearest airport, Stillwater Regional, is about 37 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas-Fort Worth International, about 191 miles away.

Nearest airport
SWO
Stillwater Regional, about 37 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
311th-busiest in the US, 1 nonstop destinations
Average drive
52 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Lincoln County

Schools across Lincoln County average a D+, better than 17% 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 Lincoln County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Lincoln 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 Lincoln County against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Lincoln County suits

Families

Schools land around the 17th percentile and crime safety beats 57%.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

It is quieter than 63%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Lincoln County

Is Lincoln County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lincoln County ranks 2,339th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low property taxes, state finances, and fast internet, and lowest on the weather and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Lincoln County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $173,642. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $63,334 median income, cost of living beats 54% of counties.

Is Lincoln County safe?

Yes, Lincoln County is safer than 57% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $409 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Lincoln County?

July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 51 with lows near 29. That works out to about 59 pleasant days a year, more than 5% of counties.

What are the best neighborhoods in Lincoln County?

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


Compare Lincoln County with other counties


Sources and methodology

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

Lincoln County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Lincoln 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.