Best PlacesShawnee County, KS Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Shawnee 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.
Shawnee County ranks 1,108th 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 state infrastructure and short commutes. The weaker spots are noise, property taxes, and taxes.
The best neighborhoods in Shawnee 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 Shawnee County
The parts of Shawnee 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.
Topeka
Crime runs lower, local pay stretches further, and more adults hold degrees.
Silver Lake
More residents vote and health care is easier to reach.
Tecumseh
More households have young kids, though prices have run up more.
Shawnee County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 3% of the country and others in the top 3%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Shawnee County's strengths and weaknesses
Shawnee County lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. State infrastructure, short commutes, and cell coverage carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Noise, property taxes, and taxes hold the score down. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Shawnee County ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 94% of counties
- Short commute17.9 minutes each way, better than 88% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than 87% of counties
- Low vacancyBetter than 87% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than 86% of counties
Where Shawnee County ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 9% of counties
- Low property taxBetter than only 11% of counties
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 17% of counties
- School gradeC−, better than only 18% of counties
- Heat safetyBetter than only 21% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Shawnee County
A household needs to earn about $53,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Shawnee County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $75,288, 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 Shawnee County's effective rate of 1.39%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Shawnee County
Shawnee 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 Shawnee County.
Who works in Shawnee County, and how
Work in Shawnee County centers on health care & social and public administration. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Shawnee County
Shawnee County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and more parkland per resident than 93% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Shawnee County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Shawnee County growing, and who is moving in?
Shawnee County has held roughly flat in population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Wichita, KS.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Shawnee County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Shawnee County, month by month
Shawnee County sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 30° | 20° |
| April | 71° | 56° | 43° |
| July | 92° | 80° | 68° |
| October | 74° | 58° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Shawnee County
The nearest airport, Manhattan Regional, is about 52 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Kansas City International, about 56 miles away.
The best schools in and around Shawnee County
Schools across Shawnee County average a C−, better than 18% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Silver Lake ElemA+ · 74% proficient
- Elmont ElemA− · 62% proficient
- Jay Shideler ElementaryA− · 56% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pauline South IntermediateC− · 30% proficient
- Washburn Rural Middle SchoolC− · 29% proficient
- Carbondale Attendance CenterC− · 29% proficient
Top high schools
- Washburn Rural HighC · 33% proficient
- Silver Lake Jr-sr HighC · 32% proficient
- St. Marys Junior Senior HighC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Shawnee County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Shawnee 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 Shawnee County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Shawnee County suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 84% of counties, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 12% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Shawnee County
Is Shawnee County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Shawnee County ranks 1,108th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on state infrastructure, short commutes, and cell coverage, and lowest on noise and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Shawnee County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $187,452. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $75,288 median income, cost of living beats 84% of counties.
Is Shawnee County safe?
Shawnee County is safer than 42% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $427 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Shawnee County?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 20. That works out to about 92 pleasant days a year, more than 54% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Shawnee County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Topeka, Silver Lake, and Tecumseh. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Shawnee County good for families?
Schools beat 18% of counties, crime safety beats 42%, and childcare runs $796 a month.
Is Shawnee County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 84% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 82% of counties. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Shawnee County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Shawnee County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Shawnee 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.
Shawnee County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Shawnee County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Shawnee County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Shawnee County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Shawnee County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Shawnee 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.