Best PlacesPassport, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Passport, 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.
Passport ranks 32,568th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Passport
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.
Passport's strengths and weaknesses
Where Passport ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 97% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 92% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 80% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 80% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 77% of towns
Where Passport ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 56 pleasant days a year, better than only 4% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 8% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Passport
A household needs to earn about $56,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Passport home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $60,412, 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 Passport's effective rate of 1.35%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Passport
Passport runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Passport.
Who works in Passport, and how
Work in Passport centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Passport
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Passport.
What the weather is like in Passport, month by month
Passport sees roughly 56 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 31° | 25° |
| April | 67° | 55° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 77° | 68° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Passport
The nearest airport, Evansville Regional, is about 64 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is St Louis Lambert International, about 116 miles away.
The best schools in and around Passport
Schools across Passport average a D+, better than 12% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Richland County Elementary SchoolC− · 29% proficient
- Clay City Elem SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Richland County Middle SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
- Clay City Jr High SchoolF · 4% proficient
Top high schools
- Clay City High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Richland County High SchoolD− · 18% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Passport school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Passport 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 Passport against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Passport
Is Passport a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Passport ranks 32,568th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, a stable housing market, and a strong job market, and lowest on taxes and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Passport expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $197,489. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $60,412 median income, cost of living beats 34% of towns.
Is Passport safe?
Yes, Passport is safer than 74% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $184 per resident a year.
Compare Passport with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Passport. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Passport 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.
Passport detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Passport: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Passport: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Passport: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Passport: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Passport 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.