Best PlacesMeadville, PA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Meadville, 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

Meadville ranks 1,635th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.

#1,635
of 2,098 cities
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 2,098 cities
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Meadville

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Meadville 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.

Meadville's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Short commutes
Top 10%Heat safety
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Meadville with other cities.

Where Meadville ranks high

  • Short commute18.0 minutes each way, better than 94% of cities
  • Heat safetyBetter than 92% of cities
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 83% of cities
  • QuietBetter than 79% of cities
  • Tree shadeBetter than 79% of cities

Where Meadville ranks low

  • Internet speedBetter than only 2% of cities
  • Cell coverageBetter than only 8% of cities
  • Low property taxBetter than only 10% of cities
  • Household income$61,254 median, better than only 10% of cities
  • Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of cities

What it costs to buy a home in Meadville

A household needs to earn about $45,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Meadville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $61,254, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$45,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,043
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $148,210 home
Median rent
$888
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$756
Property tax$238
Homeowners insurance$49

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 Meadville's effective rate of 1.93%, 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 7 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 Meadville

Meadville runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
45
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
24%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.2
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1819%
18 to 3422%
35 to 4917%
50 to 6419%
65 and older24%

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


Who works in Meadville, and how

Work in Meadville centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
9%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.7%
below the national average
Job growth
+2.4%
/y 2019-2023, near the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social18%
Manufacturing17%
Education13%
Retail trade11%
Hospitality & food9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 78%
  • Work from home 9%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 13%

Life in Meadville

Meadville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 78% of cities and more parkland per resident than 93% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Meadville and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
127
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 49.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 78% of cities
Coffee shops
19
about 7.3 per 10,000 residents, more than 85% of cities
Parkland
249 acres
about 9.6 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 93% of cities
Living on campus
1,447
students living in college or university housing

What the weather is like in Meadville, month by month

Meadville sees roughly 78 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 20. 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
January35°27°20°
April60°47°36°
July83°71°61°
October64°53°44°

Flying in and out of Meadville

The nearest airport, Erie International/Tom Ridge Field, is about 31 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 79 miles away.

Nearest airport
ERI
Erie International/Tom Ridge Field, about 31 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
259th-busiest in the US, 8 nonstop destinations
Average drive
44 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Meadville

Schools across Meadville average a B, better than 70% of cities.

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 Meadville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Meadville 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 Meadville against the other 2,097 cities.


Who Meadville suits

Families

Schools beat 70% of cities.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

9% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Health care access beats 62% and it is quieter than 79%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Meadville

Is Meadville a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Meadville ranks 1,635th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on short commutes, heat safety, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on internet speeds and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Meadville expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $148,210. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $61,254 median income, cost of living beats 21% of cities.

Is Meadville safe?

Meadville is safer than 22% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $375 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Meadville?

July highs average about 83 degrees, and January highs near 35 with lows near 20. That works out to about 78 pleasant days a year, more than 41% of cities.

Is Meadville good for families?

Schools beat 70% of cities, crime safety beats 22%, and childcare runs $832 a month.


Compare Meadville with other cities


Sources and methodology

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

Meadville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Meadville 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. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.