Best PlacesPortage County, OH Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Portage County, 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.
Portage County ranks 446th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on cheap car insurance and heat safety. The weaker spots are childcare costs, property taxes, and air quality.
The best neighborhoods in Portage County
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 Portage County
The parts of Portage 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.
Aurora & Streetsboro
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Mantua
It is quieter, though fewer households have young kids.
Mogadore
Schools score higher.
Rootstown & Atwater
Fewer homes sit empty, though biking is worse.
Garrettsville, Windham & Hiram
Tree cover is thicker and homes cost less.
Kent
Prices have run up more and fewer residents vote.
Ravenna
Streets are more walkable, though crime runs higher.
Scores across Portage County run from about the 18th to the 99th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Portage County's strengths and weaknesses
Portage County ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Cheap car insurance is the standout, in the top 3% of counties. Heat safety and low disaster risk follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Childcare costs, property taxes, and air quality hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Portage County ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 97% of counties
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than 93% of counties
- TransitBetter than 90% of counties
- School gradeB+, better than 87% of counties
Where Portage County ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,273 a month, better than only 8% of counties
- Low property taxBetter than only 17% of counties
- Air qualityBetter than only 21% of counties
- QuietBetter than only 24% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 25% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Portage County
A household needs to earn about $67,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Portage County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $80,422, 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 Portage County's effective rate of 1.24%, 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.
Who lives in Portage County
Portage County's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Portage County.
Who works in Portage County, and how
Work in Portage County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Portage County
Portage County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and more late-night spots per resident than 73% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Portage County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Portage County growing, and who is moving in?
Portage County has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Cleveland, OH.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Portage County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Portage County, month by month
Portage County sees roughly 117 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 28° | 22° |
| April | 60° | 48° | 39° |
| July | 83° | 72° | 63° |
| October | 64° | 53° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Portage County
The nearest airport, Akron-Canton Regional, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Cleveland-Hopkins International, about 34 miles away.
The best schools in and around Portage County
Schools across Portage County average a B+, better than 87% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Lake Elementary SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Leighton Elementary SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Woodland Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Top middle schools
- Harmon Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- West Branch Middle SchoolA+ · 70% proficient
- Field Middle SchoolA · 66% proficient
Top high schools
- Aurora High SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- Lake Middle / High SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
- West Branch High SchoolA · 68% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Portage County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Portage 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 Portage County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Portage County suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 72% of counties and 15% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 72% of counties and health care access beats 67%.
Common questions about living in Portage County
Is Portage County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Portage County ranks 446th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, heat safety, and low disaster risk, and lowest on childcare costs and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Portage County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $242,166. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $80,422 median income, cost of living beats 72% of counties.
Is Portage County safe?
Yes, Portage County is safer than 72% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $266 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Portage County?
July highs average about 83 degrees, and January highs near 35 with lows near 22. That works out to about 117 pleasant days a year, more than 72% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Portage County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Aurora & Streetsboro, Mantua, and Mogadore. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Portage County good for families?
Schools beat 87% of counties, crime safety beats 72%, and childcare runs $1,273 a month.
Is Portage County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 72% of counties, though advertised internet speeds beat only 53% of counties. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Portage County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Portage County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Portage 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.
Portage County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Portage County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Portage County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Portage County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Portage County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Portage County 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.