Best PlacesOccident, IN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Occident, 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.
Occident ranks 28,091st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. The weather pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on few empty homes.
The best neighborhoods in Occident
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.
Occident's strengths and weaknesses
Where Occident ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 88% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 87% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 82% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 80% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 73% of towns
Where Occident ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 57 pleasant days a year, better than only 5% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Short commute37.8 minutes each way, better than only 8% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 18% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 29% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Occident
A household needs to earn about $52,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Occident home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $78,608, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Occident's effective rate of 0.72%, 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.
Who lives in Occident
Occident runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Occident.
Who works in Occident, and how
Work in Occident centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Occident
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Occident.
What the weather is like in Occident, month by month
Occident sees roughly 57 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 32° | 23° |
| April | 69° | 55° | 42° |
| July | 88° | 77° | 66° |
| October | 73° | 58° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Occident
Indianapolis International sits about 38 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 5.2 million passengers in 2025, with 92 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Occident
Schools across Occident average a C+, better than 44% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Knightstown Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Knightstown Intermediate SchoolC− · 29% proficient
Top high schools
- Knightstown High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Occident school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Occident 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 Occident against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Occident
Is Occident a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Occident ranks 28,091st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on few empty homes, cheap car insurance, and fast internet, and lowest on the weather and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Occident expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $201,317. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $78,608 median income, cost of living beats 70% of towns.
Is Occident safe?
Occident is safer than 41% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $295 per resident a year.
Compare Occident with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Occident. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Occident 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.
Occident detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Occident: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Occident: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Occident: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Occident: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Occident detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.