Best PlacesMarshall County, IN Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Marshall 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

Marshall County ranks 1,349th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.

#1,349
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 Marshall County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Marshall 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 Marshall County

The parts of Marshall 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

Plymouth

Prices have run up less, fewer homes sit empty, and streets are more walkable.

WorseBetter
46th nationally
#2

Bremen

More households have young kids, though fewer adults hold degrees.

WorseBetter
41st nationally
#3

Argos

WorseBetter
36th nationally
#4

Culver

Local pay stretches less far and incomes run lower.

WorseBetter
28th nationally

Scores across Marshall County run from about the 12th to the 73rd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.


Marshall County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Cheap car insurance
Top 10%Big-city access
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Marshall County with other counties.

Where Marshall County ranks high

  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 93% of counties
  • Big-city accessBetter than 91% of counties
  • Heat safetyBetter than 81% of counties
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 81% of counties
  • State infrastructureBetter than 75% of counties

Where Marshall County ranks low

  • QuietBetter than only 5% of counties
  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of counties
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 25% of counties
  • Air qualityBetter than only 27% of counties
  • Health outlookBetter than only 31% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Marshall County

A household needs to earn about $55,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Marshall County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $74,021, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$55,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,290
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $214,917 home
Median rent
$969
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,096
Property tax$123
Homeowners insurance$72

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 Marshall County's effective rate of 0.68%, 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 Marshall County

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

Median age
41
about 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 1824%
18 to 3420%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6419%
65 and older20%

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


Who works in Marshall County, and how

Work in Marshall County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
6%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.2%
below the national average
Job growth
+2.0%
/y 2019-2023, near the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing29%
Health care & social12%
Retail trade10%
Education9%
Construction7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 85%
  • Work from home 6%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 8%

Life in Marshall County

Marshall County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and more parkland per resident than 81% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Marshall County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
182
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 39.5 per 10,000 residents, more than 34% of counties
Coffee shops
19
about 4.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 35% of counties
Parkland
388 acres
about 8.4 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 81% of counties

Is Marshall County growing, and who is moving in?

Marshall County has lost about 1% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from South Bend, IN.

Population growth
-1%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
46,464
down from 46,920
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

South Bend, IN529 / yr
Elkhart, IN257 / yr
Starke County, IN125 / yr
Fulton County, IN121 / yr
Indianapolis, IN120 / yr

Where people leaving Marshall County go

Indianapolis, IN485 / yr
South Bend, IN473 / yr
Kosciusko County, IN226 / yr
Starke County, IN108 / yr
Lafayette, IN108 / yr

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


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

Marshall County sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 22. 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
January34°28°22°
April60°48°39°
July82°72°62°
October65°53°44°

Flying in and out of Marshall County

The nearest airport, South Bend International, is about 25 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago Midway International, about 82 miles away.

Nearest airport
SBN
South Bend International, about 25 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
137th-busiest in the US, 37 nonstop destinations
Average drive
36 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Marshall County

Schools across Marshall County average a B−, better than 60% 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 Marshall County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Marshall 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 Marshall County against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Marshall County suits

Families

Schools beat 60% of counties and crime safety beats 62%.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

6% 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 Marshall County

Is Marshall County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Marshall County ranks 1,349th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, big-city access, and heat safety, and lowest on noise and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Marshall County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $214,917. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $74,021 median income, cost of living beats 55% of counties.

Is Marshall County safe?

Yes, Marshall County is safer than 62% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $278 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Marshall County?

July highs average about 82 degrees, and January highs near 34 with lows near 22. That works out to about 76 pleasant days a year, more than 32% of counties.

What are the best neighborhoods in Marshall County?

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


Compare Marshall County with other counties


Sources and methodology

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

Marshall County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Marshall 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.