Best PlacesProvo, UT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Provo metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Creator: Javin Weaver, CC BY-SA 3.0, via wiki
Provo ranks 12th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $109,939, everyday costs sit below the national average, and a strong job market ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are air quality, tree cover, and disaster risk.
The best neighborhoods in the Provo metro
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 Provo
The towns and districts of the Provo metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Pleasant Grove, American Fork & Highland
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and more residents vote.
Lehi, Eagle Mountain & Saratoga Springs
More households have young kids, though transit reaches fewer jobs.
Spanish Fork
Crime runs lower, though streets are more car-dependent.
Orem & Vineyard
Biking is better, though it is noisier.
Payson & Santaquin
Fewer adults hold degrees and schools score lower.
Downtown Provo
Disaster risk is lower, though prices have run up more.
Mona
Advertised internet is slower and health outcomes score lower.
Provo shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 13% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Provo's strengths and weaknesses
Provo ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Population health is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. A strong job market and few empty homes follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Air quality, tree cover, and disaster risk hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Provo ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 97% of metro areas
Where Provo ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 19% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 25% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 30% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Provo
A household needs to earn about $139,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Provo home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $109,939, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Provo's effective rate of 0.43%, 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.
Who lives in Provo
Provo runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Provo.
Who works in Provo, and how
Work in Provo centers on education and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Provo
Provo has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Provo and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Provo growing, and who is moving in?
Provo has grown about 33% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Salt Lake City, UT.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Provo go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Provo, month by month
Provo sees roughly 83 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, August, and September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 30° | 21° |
| April | 65° | 50° | 37° |
| July | 95° | 79° | 62° |
| October | 67° | 51° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Provo
The nearest airport, Provo Municipal, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Salt Lake City International, about 41 miles away.
The best schools in and around Provo
Schools across Provo average a B−, better than 59% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Goldminer's DaughterA+ · 75% proficient
- Cedar Ridge SchoolA+ · 73% proficient
- Highland SchoolA · 71% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mountain Ridge Jr HighA− · 57% proficient
- Lehi Jr HighA− · 55% proficient
- Timberline MiddleA− · 54% proficient
Top high schools
- Utah County Academy Of ScienceA · 72% proficient
- Skyridge High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Karl G. Maeser Preparatory AcademyB+ · 51% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Provo school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Provo 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 Provo against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Provo suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 97% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 19% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Provo
Is Provo a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Provo ranks 12th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on population health, a strong job market, and few empty homes, and lowest on air quality and tree cover. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Provo expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $560,101. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $109,939 median income, cost of living beats 97% of metro areas.
Is Provo safe?
Yes, Provo is safer than 89% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $279 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Provo?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 39 with lows near 21. That works out to about 83 pleasant days a year, more than 43% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Provo?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Pleasant Grove, American Fork & Highland, Lehi, Eagle Mountain & Saratoga Springs, and Spanish Fork. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Provo good for families?
Schools beat 59% of metro areas, crime safety beats 89%, and childcare runs $929 a month.
Is Provo good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 97% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 97% of metro areas. About 19% of workers already work from home.
Compare Provo with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Provo. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Provo 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.
Provo detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Provo: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Provo: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Provo: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Provo: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Provo 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.