Best PlacesMcClain County, OK Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in McClain County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

McClain County ranks 1,307th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a strong job market by a wide margin, and air quality ranks lowest.

#1,307
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 McClain County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the McClain 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 McClain County

The parts of McClain 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

Goldsby

Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and more adults hold degrees.

WorseBetter
62nd nationally
#2

Newcastle & Blanchard

Fewer homes sit empty, though fewer households have young kids.

WorseBetter
55th nationally
#3

Purcell

Homes cost less, though it is noisier.

WorseBetter
26th nationally

Scores across McClain County run from about the 13th to the 78th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.


McClain County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%A strong job market
Top 10%What local pay buys
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare McClain County with other counties.

Where McClain County ranks high

  • Local economyBetter than 99% of counties
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 92% of counties
  • Cell coverageBetter than 90% of counties
  • Low vacancyBetter than 85% of counties
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 84% of counties

Where McClain County ranks low

  • Air qualityBetter than only 4% of counties
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of counties
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 17% of counties
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 18% of counties
  • Cheap childcare$953 a month, better than only 21% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in McClain County

A household needs to earn about $69,000 a year to comfortably buy the median McClain County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $86,220, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$69,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,609
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $265,110 home
Median rent
$1,121
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,352
Property tax$169
Homeowners insurance$88

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 McClain County's effective rate of 0.77%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in McClain County

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

Median age
40
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
16%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1824%
18 to 3421%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6419%
65 and older16%

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


Who works in McClain County, and how

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

Work from home
9%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.2%
below the national average
Job growth
+6.4%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social14%
Construction11%
Education10%
Retail trade9%
Public administration8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 88%
  • Work from home 9%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in McClain County

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across McClain County.

Places to eat and drink
196
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 47.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 53% of counties
Coffee shops
24
about 5.8 per 10,000 residents, more than 57% of counties
Parkland
153 acres
about 3.7 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 44% of counties

Is McClain County growing, and who is moving in?

McClain County has grown about 30% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Oklahoma City, OK metro.

Population growth
+30%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
48,434
up from 37,244
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

The rest of the Oklahoma City, OK metro2,201 / yr
Garvin County, OK180 / yr
Pottawatomie County, OK168 / yr
Le Flore County, OK124 / yr
Tulsa, OK114 / yr

Where people leaving McClain County go

The rest of the Oklahoma City, OK metro2,688 / yr
Pontotoc County, OK145 / yr
Lawton, OK141 / yr
Colorado Springs, CO125 / yr
Tulsa, OK111 / yr

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


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

McClain County sees roughly 94 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 30. 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°39°30°
April73°60°50°
July93°82°73°
October75°63°53°

Flying in and out of McClain County

The nearest airport, Okc Will Rogers International, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas-Fort Worth International, about 155 miles away.

Nearest airport
OKC
Okc Will Rogers International, about 20 miles
Airport size
Small hub
68th-busiest in the US, 68 nonstop destinations
Average drive
29 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around McClain County

Schools across McClain County average a C−, better than 23% 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 McClain County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


McClain 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 McClain County against the other 3,143 counties.


Who McClain County suits

Families

Schools land around the 23rd percentile and crime safety beats 60%.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Cost of living against local pay beats 92% of counties and 9% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 56% of counties.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in McClain County

Is McClain County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, McClain County ranks 1,307th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on a strong job market, what local pay buys, and cell coverage, and lowest on air quality and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is McClain County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $265,110. The overall cost of living runs about 19% below the national average. Set against a $86,220 median income, cost of living beats 92% of counties.

Is McClain County safe?

Yes, McClain County is safer than 60% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $393 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in McClain County?

July highs average about 93 degrees, and January highs near 51 with lows near 30. That works out to about 94 pleasant days a year, more than 56% of counties.

What are the best neighborhoods in McClain County?

Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Goldsby, Newcastle & Blanchard, and Purcell. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.


Compare McClain County with other counties


Sources and methodology

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

McClain County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

McClain 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.