Best PlacesSedgwick County, KS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Sedgwick 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.
Sedgwick County ranks 1,186th 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 cell coverage and state infrastructure. The weaker spots are air quality, civic engagement, and noise.
The best neighborhoods in Sedgwick 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 Sedgwick County
The parts of Sedgwick 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.
Maize, Andale & Colwich
Crime runs lower, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Clearwater & Cheney
Fewer homes sit empty, though biking is worse.
Bel Aire & Kechi
More adults hold degrees, though homes cost more.
Goddard
More residents vote.
Wichita
Transit reaches more jobs and streets are more walkable.
Derby
More households have young kids.
Park City & Valley Center
Health care is harder to reach.
Haysville
Prices have run up more and schools score lower.
Sedgwick County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Sedgwick County's strengths and weaknesses
Sedgwick County lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cell coverage is the standout, in the top 3% of counties. State infrastructure and transit follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Air quality, civic engagement, and noise hold the score down. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Sedgwick County ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 97% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than 94% of counties
- TransitBetter than 93% of counties
- BikingBetter than 93% of counties
- Internet speedBetter than 92% of counties
Where Sedgwick County ranks low
- Air qualityBetter than only 8% of counties
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 10% of counties
- QuietBetter than only 12% of counties
- School gradeD+, better than only 13% of counties
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 17% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Sedgwick County
A household needs to earn about $58,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sedgwick County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,015, 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 Sedgwick County's effective rate of 1.16%, 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 Sedgwick County
Sedgwick County runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Sedgwick County.
Who works in Sedgwick County, and how
Work in Sedgwick County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Sedgwick County
Sedgwick County has more parkland per resident than 67% of counties and more late-night spots per resident than 70% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Sedgwick County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Sedgwick County growing, and who is moving in?
Sedgwick County has grown about 5% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Wichita, KS metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Sedgwick County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Sedgwick County, month by month
Sedgwick County sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 33° | 22° |
| April | 73° | 57° | 44° |
| July | 95° | 82° | 69° |
| October | 76° | 60° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Sedgwick County
The nearest airport, Wichita Dwight D Eisenhower Ntl, is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 181 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sedgwick County
Schools across Sedgwick County average a D+, better than 13% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Wheatland ElementaryA+ · 78% proficient
- Robert M. Martin ElementaryA+ · 73% proficient
- Cheney ElemA · 72% proficient
Top middle schools
- Andover Middle SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
- Discovery Intermediate SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- Andover HighB− · 45% proficient
- Maize South High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Eisenhower High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sedgwick County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sedgwick 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 Sedgwick County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Sedgwick County suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 85% of counties, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 8% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Sedgwick County
Is Sedgwick County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sedgwick County ranks 1,186th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on cell coverage, state infrastructure, and transit, and lowest on air quality and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sedgwick County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $212,512. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $79,015 median income, cost of living beats 85% of counties.
Is Sedgwick County safe?
Sedgwick County is safer than 36% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $496 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Sedgwick County?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 47 with lows near 22. That works out to about 89 pleasant days a year, more than 51% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Sedgwick County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Maize, Andale & Colwich, Clearwater & Cheney, and Bel Aire & Kechi. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Sedgwick County good for families?
Schools beat 13% of counties, crime safety beats 36%, and childcare runs $712 a month.
Is Sedgwick County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 85% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 92% of counties. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Sedgwick County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sedgwick County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sedgwick 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.
Sedgwick County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sedgwick County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sedgwick County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sedgwick County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sedgwick County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sedgwick 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.