Best PlacesPike County, GA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Pike County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Pike County ranks 996th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a strong job market by a wide margin, and long commutes are the weak spot.

#996
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 Pike County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Pike 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.

Pike County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%A strong job market
Top 10%Quiet
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Pike County with other counties.

Where Pike County ranks high

  • Local economyBetter than 99% of counties
  • QuietBetter than 91% of counties
  • Household income$88,690 median, better than 86% of counties
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 85% of counties
  • Voter turnoutBetter than 84% of counties

Where Pike County ranks low

  • Short commute35.7 minutes each way, better than only 3% of counties
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 4% of counties
  • BikingBetter than only 7% of counties
  • Cell coverageBetter than only 12% of counties
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 14% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Pike County

A household needs to earn about $80,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pike County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $88,690, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$80,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,859
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $303,257 home
Median rent
$960
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,546
Property tax$212
Homeowners insurance$101

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 Pike County's effective rate of 0.84%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. 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 Pike County

Pike County's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
40
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
16%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
3.0
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1823%
18 to 3421%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6420%
65 and older16%

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


Who works in Pike County, and how

Work in Pike County centers on construction and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.0%
below the national average
Job growth
+8.5%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Construction12%
Education10%
Manufacturing10%
Health care & social10%
Retail trade9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 87%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 5%

Life in Pike County

Pike County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Pike County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
43
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 22.8 per 10,000 residents, more than 4% of counties
Coffee shops
6
about 3.2 per 10,000 residents, more than 20% of counties

Is Pike County growing, and who is moving in?

Pike County has grown about 16% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Atlanta, GA metro.

Population growth
+16%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
20,669
up from 17,765
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

The rest of the Atlanta, GA metro807 / yr
Macon, GA195 / yr
Upson County, GA149 / yr
Warner Robins, GA22 / yr
Lamar County, GA18 / yr

Where people leaving Pike County go

The rest of the Atlanta, GA metro469 / yr
Rutherford County, NC157 / yr
Wildwood, FL70 / yr
Upson County, GA69 / yr
Macon, GA51 / yr

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


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

Pike County sees roughly 93 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 55, with lows near 37. The comfortable stretch runs March through 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
January55°45°37°
April74°62°52°
July89°78°70°
October75°64°55°

Flying in and out of Pike County

Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta International sits about 37 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 51.5 million passengers in 2025, with 278 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
ATL
Hartsfield/Jackson Atlanta International, about 37 miles
Airport size
Large hub
1st-busiest in the US, 278 nonstop destinations
Average drive
53 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Pike County

Schools across Pike County average a C, better than 34% 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 Pike County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Pike 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 Pike County against the other 3,143 counties.


Common questions about living in Pike County

Is Pike County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pike County ranks 996th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on a strong job market, quiet, and high incomes, and lowest on long commutes and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Pike County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $303,257. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $88,690 median income, cost of living beats 85% of counties.

Is Pike County safe?

Yes, Pike County is safer than 80% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $244 per resident a year.


Compare Pike County with other counties


Sources and methodology

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

Pike County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Pike 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.